WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Skidmore College men's golf team finished fifth out of 17 teams at the Williams Fall Invitational, which concluded Sunday at Taconic Golf Club.

• The finish gives the Thoroughbreds back-to-back top-five results to begin the fall after placing second at the season-opening Duke Nelson Invitational last weekend.
• Senior Tate Esler finished in a tie for sixth to lead the way for Skidmore (302-292-304—898). Getting better as the tournament went on, he followed Saturday's 74 and 73 with a Sunday 72. It was the day's second-best round. His 11 birdies for the tournament were third.
• Jaden Cheng (76-72-73—221) tied for 11^th. He carded no worse than bogey across the 54-hole event, and carded an eagle-3 on the par-5 first on Sunday. He also rounded out his third0round 73 with 13 pars, the eagle, and four bogeys.
• Derek Thomas started Saturday's second round on fire. After a par on his opening hole, the sophomore birdied the next two before making eagle on No. 10. He then birdied two more in a row (No. 2 and No. 3) on the way to a 1-under 70. Thomas (82-70-81—233) tied for 46^th.
• Johnny Hwang (76-79-78—233) was also part of the eight-way tie in the 46^th place. Hwang's opening-round 76 featured 13 pars and no score worse than bogey.
• Cooper Guerriere (76-77-81—234) was one behind Thomas and Hwang in a tie for 54^th. Guerriere carded six birdies on the weekend in his second collegiate start.
• Steady rain made scoring difficult throughout Sunday's third and final round. All but one team in the field posted its highest team round of the weekend.
• As a team, the Thoroughbreds tore up the par-5s, finishing with a tournament-leading 10-under par score in the course's three par-5s.
• Pomona-Pitzer was the exception, closing with a 294 to win the team title with a three-round score of 877 (+25).
• Skidmore's fifth-place showing put the Thoroughbreds ahead of host Williams, which finished eighth, as well as NESCAC programs Tufts and Middlebury, which tied for sixth.
• Amherst's Andre Zhang and Tufts' JP Noone finished tied atop the individual leaderboard at 215 (+2).

 
FROM HEAD COACH TOM OPPEDISANO
"We got off to another slow start, but really proud of the guys for how they hung in there and showed great mental toughness and discipline today in very challenging weather to move up three places."
 
UP NEXT
Skidmore returns to action Monday, Oct. 5 at the RPI Invitational at Shaker Ridge Country Club.