Continuing a historic start to his collegiate career, freshman Jared Nelson finished in a four-way tie for first place at the UCONN Invitational at GreatHorse Tuesday afternoon.

Beginning the day in a 10-way tie for 18th place individually, the Rutland, Vermont native matched his 18-hole career low in the final round of the 54-hole tournament, carding -5, 67 to surge into a split for the top spot. The result once again tied him with Dan Abbondandolo for the third-lowest single-round total in program history.

Finishing in a knot for first for the second time in Siena Men's Golf's fall season after doing so at the Cornell Invitational, Nelson shot the first eagle of his collegiate career, which came at hole eight, along with four birdies in the final round at the par-72, 7,093-yard course. The MAAC Male Golfer of the Month for September finished at the top along with Cornell's Tianyi Cen, Hartford's Elias Gross and UCONN's Jimmy Hervol, with each shooting +2, 218 for the week.

"Jared continues to be impressive with each tournament he plays in," Head Coach Steven Jensen said. "His effort has payed off tremendously so far during the fall season."

Nelson's performance propelled Siena up the leaderboard to fourth place out of the 13 competitors, giving the team its first top-5 finish of the season. Concluding play with a +4, 292, the Saints shot +37, 901 over  54-holes, leapfrogging Sacred Heart, Cornell, Lehigh & Colgate in the third round.

The squad stood first out of four MAAC representatives at the event, besting conference counterparts Rider (ninth), Fairfield (10th) and Saint Peter's (13^th). Overall, it was host school UCONN (+19, 883) that took home the title, with Hartford (+28, 892) and Lafayette (+36, 900) following behind.

"I'm proud of our guys for the fourth place finish," Jensen continued. "We played better in every round, and had rhe lowest 18-hole team score for any of the three rounds. It was a great team effort that saw everyone contribute over three days."

Along with Nelson, fellow freshman Brad Whitaker (+10, 226) and sophomore Jack Brown (+14, 230) also displayed their best golf of the tournament in its final round, carding rounds of +2, 74 and +1, 73 to finish in ties for 17th and 32nd, respectively.

Senior Jack Bellardini (+21, 237) and Sophomore Pudge Williams (+22, 238) rounded out the Saints' five-man team taking the course, splitting for 65th and 67th place, respectively, for the tournament.

Looking for build off a strong team result, Siena will conclude its fall 2018 slate next weekend, competing at the Lehigh Invitational in Bethlehem, PA Oct. 19-20.