Golf ends downslide with win at Lehigh

The Penn men's golf team ended its streak of lackluster tournaments by claiming the Lehigh Invitational for the third straight year last weekend with an overall team score of 593, only 17 over par as a team. The Quakers also had all five of its golfers place in the top 20 of the entire field. While the season has been rocky thus far, the Quakers' victory bodes very well for the golf team's spring season and next weekend's event at James Madison. Penn was led by junior Rob Hunt and sophomore Kyle Moran, who both posted a two round total of 148. Following these two was senior Brian Owens, who shot 78-73 for a total of 151, along with junior Rob Goldfaden, who also shot a 151 (79-72). Freshman Kieran Doherty was the fifth Quaker to compete, and he continued what has been excellent fall season for him by shooting 153 (77-76). "Even with our less-than-glamorous results in our previous tournaments, as a team we had the utmost confidence in our ability when we arrived at Lehigh as the two-time defending champions," senior Brian Owens said. While Penn did trail eventual third place finisher George Washington by three strokes after the first 18, Penn surpassed the Colonials on Saturday, winning the Invitational going away. The score put the Quakers 16 strokes ahead of runner-up Villanova and 18 strokes ahead of the Colonials. In addition to these East Coast foes, Penn finally defeated Princeton, a team they have played with in many of their previous fall tournaments, by 19 strokes. The Tigers are a team they will need to defeat to retain their Ivy crown. Also competing was Cornell, which was at the far back of the pack. "It was nice to beat Princeton, that will boost our confidence when the Spring season rolls around," Owens said. While the flowers certainly smell better now that Penn is in the win column, next week's final event of the fall season will prove very difficult. Following suit with the progress of the program in general, Penn will for the first time under third-year head coach Francis Vaughn compete at the James Madison Invite, a field filled with all of the district's top teams. This includes host James Madison, ranked either one or two in the district in many of the most recent polls taken.