By Jimmy Sullivan
The Fordham men’s golf team struggled to replicate its early-season form this past weekend, finishing 11th in the Quechee Invitational, which was held in Quechee, Vermont and hosted by Dartmouth University.
The team finished near the bottom of the leaderboard in the 14-team tournament that included Brown University, Bucknell University, Central Connecticut State University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Drexel University, University of Hartford, Harvard University, College of the Holy Cross, Princeton University, Rhode Island University, Siena College and Temple University.
Senior Matt Schiller paced the Rams with an even-par 72 on Sunday to go along with his three-over round of 75 on Saturday. Fellow senior and Sept. 13 Male Athlete of the Week James Mongey finished at eight over par with rounds of 74 and 78. Sophomore Tomas Nieves was impressive on Saturday, posting a two-over 74; he followed that up with a 79 in the tournament’s final round. Josh Madarang, a junior from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, shot a 76 and a 78 to finish his weekend at 10-over, while senior Joseph Trim finished at 17-over with rounds of 78 and 83. Also representing the Rams on an individual basis was freshman Anthony Wells, who fired rounds of 91 and 82 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Fordham finished ahead of only Siena, Brown and Holy Cross. The team was 14 strokes off the lead after Saturday’s first round, one in which it combined to shoot an 11-over 299. While other teams made up ground and moved up the leaderboard on Sunday, Fordham fell further off the pace with a 19-over 307; Schiller was the only Ram to finish with a round at or below par. The senior finished in a tie with eight other players for 15th on the tournament’s individual leaderboard with a three-over finish over 36 holes.
Drexel ultimately came out on top of the tournament on Sunday, besting Princeton by just one stroke in large part due to a 12-under team score in the final round. Drexel’s Aaron Fricke and Princeton’s Evan Quinn tied for first on the individual leaderboard, while eight other players finished at even or one-under. Fordham finished eighth in the team standings on Saturday before slipping to 11th at the tournament’s conclusion. This is Fordham’s worst tournament finish of the season, following a victory at the Ryan T. Lee Invitational and an eighth-place finish at the Hartford Hawks Invitational.
Next up for the Fordham is the MacDonald Invitational at Yale University the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 1. After that, the team will go to Pennsylvania to participate in the Bucknell Fall Invitational before completing the fall portion of its season on Oct. 20-21 at the Lehigh Invitational.
