This past weekend both the men and women's golf teams traveled down to New Jersey to compete in the Ivy League Championships.
The men's team finished seventh out of eight teams in the tournament, which was disappointing for them. Kenan Yount '06, however, continued his solid play by finishing 11th with a 54-hole total of 237, including a third-round score of 73. He was the low scorer for the Big Green. Matt Uretsky '07 also continued his terrific rookie season with a 240, which placed him in a tie for 16th.
"The weakest point was certainly the first day," Yount said. "The course was set up a bit ridiculously. Some of the pins were placed where it was almost impossible to two-putt the green, so there was a lot of luck involved, and unfortunately the luck was not with us. However, the second day, after so many people complained about the previous day's set-up, they set up the course reasonably, and so our truer ability shined, as we had the second low score of the day, which was awesome. It was nice to end the tournament on a positive note."
The Big Green ended with a total of 970, which beat rivals Brown by 10 strokes. Princeton took home the Ivy League title with an impressive 925. Penn finished second in the tournament with a 942, while Columbia and Yale tailed the Quakers with a 944 and 945 respectively.
Jeremiah Daly '04 competed in the championship and finished with a 252, while Mark Christian '06 and Chaki Kobayashi '06 managed a 248 and 250 respectively.
The women's team was a bit more successful in the tournament, finishing fourth out of eight teams shooting a combined 1021. Shannon Rogers '04 was the top finisher for Dartmouth, ending with a 246 over three rounds, which earned her 10th place overall. Kathy Birchall '04 pitched in with a 253 and 17th place, while Hayley Stevens '07 took home the 20th place position by shooting a 257.
"Our team made a huge improvement from last year and we were really excited about that," Birchall said. "We fought hard through the first day; we're not used to playing 36 holes in one day and the greens were tough, and we suffered from our lack of a practice green in Hanover."
Princeton won the entire tournament with a 947. This was the fourth time in five years that they have won the tournament. The Tigers shot 13 strokes past defending champions Yale, while Harvard finished third with a 1012. Next week's matchup at Amherst for the last tournament of the season should be a true testament to the gritty play and hard-nosed fight that the women have put up this season.
Birchall seemed positive about the last tournament, saying, "We're going into our last tournament with high hopes. Harvard is our main opponent, and we plan on beating them this time since they squeaked by us at Ivy's. But I think we're a better team and hopefully we'll prove that this weekend. We've got a great momentum going right now."
The men and women's team compete in their last tournaments this weekend, as the men travel to the Rhode Island Tournament and the women tee off at the Northeast Championship at Amherst.
