The Dartmouth men's golf team placed third in a 22-team field at the Toski Invitational, held Sunday and yesterday in Amherst, Mass. Further west, the women finished sixth at the Huskie Classic in Northern Illinois.
Freshman Steve Gruber fired consecutive rounds of 75 to lead the men, while sophomores Kathy Birchall and Shannon Rogers led the women's squad with mirroring scores of 86-84-170 and 84-86-170, respectively.
The men received outstanding play from new and familiar faces in their best finish of the season, a 298-305-603.
Gruber's 150 was good for 10th place overall. Captains Lee Birchall '02 and Andrew Pisacano '02 tied for 12th with scores of 76-75-151 and 74-77-151, respectively.
Junior Jero Esteve shot the team's best score in the opening round and finished one stroke back of the senior captains with a 73-79-152.
Birchall was pleased with his team's impressive performance.
"Overall we were very consistent and had a really solid team effort," he said.
"Our 298 [Sunday] was our best round of the year so far and we're going to have a lot of confidence going into the Yale Invitational this weekend and the New England Championship in two weeks."
With a combined tally of 712, the Dartmouth women finished just five strokes back of the pack, but last overall, against very strong competition.
Missouri-Kansas City, led by top overall scorer Mindy Merrifeld with a 78-84-162, edged out host school Northern Illinois to take first place.
Northern Illinois' top player, Janelle Warrick, shot an impressive 75 on the first day but could not follow through in her next round of 89, leaving her team just four strokes shy of the lead.
Birchall and Rogers tied for ninth in the individual standings with their 170.
The women will compete in the ECAC championship in a few weeks.
