The Thunderbirds wrapped up play at the Pizza Hut-Pat Hicks Invitational on Tuesday finishing third as a team, while sophomore Jake Vincent finished as the runner-up at the event securing second place with a 138.
Vincent shot a 67 on the opening day, and followed that up with a 71 on Tuesday to finish six-under.
“It was big,” Vincent said about his performance at Sunbrook Golf Club. “I was hoping for something a little bit better, but it was a great start to the year and I’m hoping it leads to big things in the spring.”
The T-Birds had two other players finish in the top five, as both senior Fidel Concepcion (74, 69) and freshman Sam Butler (71, 72) finished at 143 and in a tie for fifth on the leaderboard.
Austin Jaramillo was fourth for the Thunderbirds and 28th in the field, shooting a 152 (78, 74). Ali Hameed was the fifth T-Bird in the lineup, and finished in a tie for 37th with a 156 (79, 77).
The Thunderbirds shot a 286 on Tuesday, improving on the 290 they shot on Monday, to finish the event at 576 as a team.
“I think we’re a little disappointed, with it being our home opener we thought we could win this one, but the other two teams played great so props to them for playing well,” Vincent said. “But we played about as well as we could, and came out in third so we’re proud of the effort.”
Bradley Collet played for the Thunderbirds as an individual, and was the top finisher in that respect as he finished tied for 10th in the field by shooting a 144 (72, 72).
Ethan Gray (157) and Humza Hameed (165) both played as individuals for the Thunderbirds as well, finishing tied for 39th and in 53rd respectively.
For the third consecutive year, Utah Valley University won the event with a team score of 565 (281, 284). Utah State finished as the runner-up, shooting a 574 (282, 292). Weber State (587) and Morehead State (588) rounded out the top five at the event.
The Thunderbirds will move forward now, and compete at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in Palm Desert starting on Friday.
“We’ll just hopefully go out there, have a good time, and hopefully keep plugging along,” Vincent said looking forward to the upcoming weekend. “The team’s doing good things, so to see the team continue to do those things would be awesome.”
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