Siena Men's Golf began its final tournament of the Fall 2018 season with a stellar showing, landing in second out of 13 teams following day one at the 2018 Lehigh Invitational in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Friday.
The Saints shot +16, 304 to edge out MAAC competitors Fairfield (+20, 308) and Iona (+23, 311), trailing the event leader, conference foe Monmouth, by nine strokes halfway through competition in the 36-hole affair.
Three of the five members of the Green and Gold's competition squad registered multiple holes under-par, with junior
Jake Holt steadying the team with four. Playing from the two-spot, freshman
Brad Whitaker registered the first eagle of his collegiate career, going two-under on hole 13, a 340-yard par-4.
Overall, freshman
Jared Nelson, who was recently ranked as the No. 228 collegiate golfer in the country according to GolfStat, led the way for the Saints. The Rutland, Vermont native, who landed in a four-way tie for first at the UCONN Invitational at GreatHorse two weeks ago, shot +2, 74 on the par-72, 7,091-yard Grace Course at the Saucon Valley Country Club, tying Navy's Thomas Garbee for ninth place individually.
Holt and Whitaker each finished the day within the top-20, carding +4, 76 to land in a six-way split for 19th. Sophomore
Jack Brown birdied hole 15 en-route of a +6, 78, good for a knot for 29th, while senior
Jack Bellardini went under on hole 5, finishing tied for 43rd individually.
Looking to cement their fourth top-10 and second straight top-5 finish of the season, the team will return to action Saturday, Oct. 20 to close out their fall campaign. The day's action will tee off at 8:30 a.m. from hole 10, with Siena golfers starting their outings between 11:30 a.m. and 12:10 p.m.
