Photo Courtesy of Sports Information
By Carly Mersky, Staff Writer
Susquehanna Men’s Golf began their season finishing second in a three school event at the Williamsport Country Club on April 7 in Williamsport, Pa.
followed up by a fourth place finish in a six school event at the Susquehanna Valley Country Club in Hummels Wharf, Pa, before wrapping up the regular season in a three school event, finishing second at the Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic, Pa.
On April 7, the Susquehanna University Men’s Golf team had their first match of the season against Lycoming College and Penn College at the Williamsport Country Club. The River Hawks came in second place overall with a 335 and +51 par, with Penn College placing in first with a 328 and +44 par and Lycoming in third place with a 468 and a par of +184.
For Susquehanna, senior captain Chris Bouchard shot a 9-over 80, sophomore Devin Peart also shot a 9-over 80, while senior Logan Kern shot a 13-over 84, junior Andrew Galletta shot a 20-over91, with Nate Sealy shooting a 22-over 93 and finally senior Morgan Fisher finished with a 23-over 94..
Peart said: “We were excited and anxious to get our first tournament in over a year underway. Everyone had put in a lot of work leading up to the event with Lycoming and Penn College. Unfortunately, that hard work did not translate to the course as a lot of us were very nervous and that resulted in poor shots and uncharacteristic scores for us.”
“Despite the disappointment we all share about our results, there were a lot of things that all of us can learn from a day like today. Each guy will tell you that they did not play to their potential today and that it must get better. Each of us have an opportunity now to go improve our individual games and be better for our next tournament on Sunday,” Peart countined.
Following the second place finish the River Hawks finished fourth in a six school event at the Susquehanna Valley Country Club in Hummels Wharf, Pa.
On April 11 the team had their second match of the year with the SU Spring Invitational match with Lycoming, Penn College, Penn State Harrisburg, Rosemont and Scranton. Susquehanna came in fourth place overall with a score of 322 and +42 par.
Scranton picked up the win with a team total of 35-over and 315, Penn State Harrisburg finished one shot back of the Royals, with a team score of 36-over 316, with Rosemont finishing one shot back of the Nittany Lions, with a team score of 37-over 317. Rounding off the leaderboard following the River Hawks, was Penn College with a team total of 65-over 345, with Lycoming coming in last with a team score of 185-over 465.
For the River Hawks, Peart had a 6-over 76 to lead the way.Bouchard had a 9-over 79,which was followed by Kern’s 13-over 83, Galletta’s 14-over 84 and junior Greg Hiriak’s 15-over 85.
Fisher said, “We had high hopes going into the day and looked to improve from our last performance in Williamsport.”
“Unfortunately, while we did improve from our last outing, we still didn’t play at the level we know we can. We are looking forward to the upcoming weeks and will continue to improve,” Fisher continued.
With the fourth place under their belts, the River Hawks wrapped up the regular season in a three school event, finishing second at the Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic, Pa.
On April 19, the team had their final match of the regular season against the University of Scranton and Elizabethtown College. Susquehanna finished in second place with a 39-over 323. Scranton picked up the win in the three team event shooting a combined 24-over 308, which was followed by the River Hawks with Elizabethtown coming in last with a combined 82-over 366.
For the River Hawks, Peart picked up the individual victory shooting a 3-over 74. Kern shot a 10-over 81, which was followed up by Hiriak’s 12-over 83, Galletta’s 14-over 85 and Bouchard’s 15-over 86.
Hiriak said: “My teammates and I were definitely excited. I personally had heard great things about Glenmaura National, which is where we played, and I had been playing some good golf leading up to today, so I was just excited to get out there and compete.”
“After the match, there was some disappointment within the team, as we feel that we all could’ve played better. For me, I had a bad front 9, but recovered a bit on the back, so I feel that I just have to work on putting together two good 9’s. We just must work hard at practice the rest of the week in order to prepare for the Conference Championships on Saturday,” Hiriak said, “[I] also want to give a quick congrats to my teammate Peart for picking up the individual victory. That guy is one of the hardest working guys I know on the golf course. He’s always putting in the work, and I’m happy to see it paying off for him.”
