Men’s golf wins at Williams by two strokes

While the women’s golf team had an off weekend, the men’s team competed in the Williams invitational, coming away in first place. The invitational, named Williams NESCAC Spring Opener hosted six NESCAC schools in the last competition before the NESCAC Championships next weekend at Middlebury.
Five Middlebury golfers competed in the tournament. Jim Levins ’11 earned medalist honors for his first place finish this weekend with a score of 71. After a harder first day, Levins was tied for fourth with a score of 39 points. However on Sunday, Levins came away with shooting a 32, a score five strokes ahead of any other player’s Sunday score.
Next for the Panthers was Robert C. Israel ’13, who tied for fourth place with a two-day score of 75. Fellow sophomore, William Prince ’13 followed Israel shooting a 78 to tie for ninth. To finish up for the Panthers was Brian Cady ’11, just one stroke behind Prince with a score of 78 in 13th place, and Max Alley ’14 in 22nd place with a score of 81.
“I think that we showed ourselves that we are making good progress and that we’ve been putting in solid practices over the last few weeks, even though conditions haven’t been ideal,” said Levins. “We have to keep doing what we’ve been doing and continue to have confidence in our individual games and our ability as a team.”
Middlebury earned a two-day score of 301, two strokes ahead of NESCAC rival Williams who had a two-day score of 303.
After winning the NESCAC qualifiers during the fall season, the team was able to win the bid in order to host the NESCAC championships this coming weekend. The Vermont weather is always in question when competing in outdoor sports in the harsh conditions which living in Middlebury brings.
“I believe rain is predicted for the next few days, so the course will be wet and playing longer than usual for the tournament,” Levins said. “We’ve been playing in these types of conditions for the past month, so I would say our preparation is on par with what we’ll see this weekend.”
Last year, the team placed fourth at the Williams Invitational and came second at the NESCAC Championships which were hosted by Williams. Trinity edged out the Panthers from winning the title.