The Penn men’s and women’s golf teams traveled to Springfield, N.J., over the weekend to participate in the Ivy League Championships at Baltusrol Golf Club.
The men’s team played the par-70 lower course while the women’s team played the par-72 upper course in a 54-hole tournament to determine this season’s Ivy League champions.
Over the course of a roller coaster weekend, the men’s team finished in eighth place with a total score of 77-over par, while the women’s team claimed fifth place with a total score of 76-over- par.
The men’s team shot combined scores of 302, 310 and 305 to finish just three strokes behind seventh-place Cornell and four strokes behind sixth-place Dartmouth. On the other side, the women’s team posted rounds of 320, 295 and 325 to finish ten strokes behind fourth-place Yale.
Junior Ben Cooley led the men’s team in all three rounds, shooting 73 and two 74s to finish 11-over-par. Individually, Cooley placed seventh overall in the field. Freshman Dane Walton tied for 18th individually with his 18-over-par 228 final score.
Sophomore Patrick O’Leary finished two strokes behind Walton in 21st place , while juniors Austin Powell and Tomas Agrest finished tied for 35th and 39th, respectively.
Columbia posted combined rounds of 302, 276 and 303 to claim the Ivy League title at 41-over-par. Yale, whose 53-over-par was just two strokes behind the champions, finished in second. Four strokes behind the leaders at 55-over-par, Harvard claimed third place .
Brown’s Nelson Hargrove and Harvard’s Theodore Lederhausen finished tied for first place individually at five over, while Cornell’s Carl Schimenti came in third at 6-over- par.
With Cooley and Walton leading the way, the team ended the first round in fourth place , but a difficult second round on Saturday saw the Quakers drop to the bottom of the leaderboard heading into Sunday. Unable to gain much ground on day three, Penn came close to advancing up the standings but ultimately finished where it had started the day.
The team’s last-place finish comes on the heels of a third-place showing in last season’s Championships. The team won the title outright in 2012 as well.
On the women’s side, freshman Erin Lo led the team as she tied for seventh place overall with a 14-over-par score of 230. Junior Amanda Chin shot a 17-over-par 233, including a strong 70 in the second round of play, to finish tied for 11th place individually.
Freshman Marissa Kay also posted an outstanding score in the second round, shooting one -over-par to help catapult her into a tie for 14th overall, one stroke behind Chin. Freshmen Isabella Rahm and Sophia Chen also tied for 25th and 27th, respectively.
Harvard posted rounds of 297, 297 and 306 to claim the Ivy League title at 33-over. Princeton finished 21 strokes behind Harvard in second, while Columbia’s 62-over claimed third place. Harvard’s Anne Cheng finished first overall individually with a one-over-par 217, while Princeton’s Kelly Shon’s six-over and Yale’s Elisabeth Bernabe’s 10-over were good enough for second and third place , respectively.
Led by Lo, Chin and Kay, the Quakers ended the first round in fifth place but mounted a comeback to move into fourth place heading into Sunday. However, the team was unable to break through once more in the final round to advance up the leaderboard and fell back to fifth place to close out the tournament.
The Quakers’ result matches the team’s finish in the Championships last season. Penn also won the tournament outright in 2010 while finishing second in 2012.
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