The Blinn College men’s golf team capped a fantastic two days of golf with second- and third-place finishes at the Jacksonville Invitational on Tuesday in Jacksonville, Texas.
The Buccaneers’ Blue team shot 25-over collectively to place just one stroke behind tournament champion Tyler Junior College, while the Blinn White squad shot 27-over for third. Eleven teams competed in Jacksonville.
It was also a big day for the Bucs individually, as freshman shot even across three rounds of play to finish first among 61 golfers. Sophomores Preston DeSerrano and Ben Jones tied for third at 2-over par, while freshman Cody Peters (4-over) and sophomore Gabe Herbst (7-over) placed sixth and ninth, respectively.
“We had a lot of positive things happen the past two days,” Bucs head coach David Johnson said. “Three freshmen played in their first Collegiate tournament and competed really well, and Ben Frost winning in his first start was tremendous. We took two teams to see a lot of guys compete and show us what they could do on the road. I thought we executed our skill sets pretty well. We still need to work on the fundamentals every day to keep improving our game, but I am excited to see how much we can improve throughout the fall.”
Johnson said dividing his players into two squads has been a difficult task because of how evenly matched many of the Bucs are when it comes to skills. Blinn’s golfers made his job harder this week after nine Bucs placed in the top half of the field in Jacksonville.
(Pictured: Blinn men’s golfers, from left, Ben Frost, Ben Jones, Preston DeSerrano, and Cody Peters)
“I really had no idea how to divide the teams up because there is such a small gap in scoring averages from practice,” Johnson explained. “It was almost like a pick-them-out-of-a-hat situation for this tournament. Now that we have some results, I can make better decisions on our top six.
The Blinn women’s golf team did not enter the Invitational as a squad and instead opted to deploy three individuals into the field of 31 golfers.
Freshman Alison Madeley led the trio at 22-over and finished in a two-way tie for fourth place across two rounds. She had a solid tournament with a pair of birdies while making par 14 times. Freshmen Jacie Lane (37-over) and Lillie Webster (38-over) claimed 15th and 17th place, respectively.
“I continue to be impressed with our ladies’ determination and focus during tournament play,” Blinn assistant coach Gary Belt said. “I believe our players will benefit from this experience after learning a great deal.”
Next up for both the Buccaneer men and women is the two-day Blinn Invitational, which begins Monday, Oct. 14, at the Brenham Country Club in Brenham, Texas.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 49 national championships since 1987.
