The Blinn College men’s and women’s golf teams put forth a pair of tremendous performances at the 2024 Centenary/Hal Sutton Invitational at The Golf Club at Stonebridge in Bossier City, La.
The Buccaneer men’s Blue team earned a first-place finish among nine teams with a 13-over-par showing. Blinn’s White squad also had a big tournament, tying for second place.
Sophomores Jacob Holloway, Anthony Rubino, and Cason Holzshu, and freshman Preston DeSerrano placed first through fourth, respectively to lead Blinn. Holloway shot even across the two rounds of play, while Rubino, Holzshu, and DeSerrano were each 2-over par. Freshman Ben Jones also cracked the top 1o with a 5-over par outing.
A total of 49 golfers competed in the two-day competition.
(Pictured: Blinn sophomore Jacob Holloway)
The team win for Blinn was its first of the spring season.
“We have struggled in our first two tournaments this spring, but we snapped out of that in a big way,” Bucs men’s and women’s head coach David Johnson said. “We took two teams and finished one and two, so that’s awesome. Plus, you don’t often see four golfers from one team taking the first four spots. I thought they got back to good course management and decision making this week, and it was fun to watch them compete.”
The Buccaneer women’s team continued a recent stretch of strong play with a second-place finish (105-over) in a seven-team tussle. Blinn finished behind tournament champion Tyler Junior College.
Sophomore Emily Madeley produced her second top-two finish in as many meets with a 15-over-par card in the 39-golfer competition. She placed second and was just four strokes behind individual champion Annie Piggott (Millsaps College). Freshman Rattanavarin Tassaneetipagorn shot 24-over to place sixth, and sophomores Natalie Peebles (31-over) and Kimberly Tiefenbach (35-over) finished in 10th and 11th place, respectively.
(Pictured: Blinn sophomore Emily Madeley)
“The ladies struggled in the first round with the wind blowing opposite of how the course was set up, and that made for a lot of really long carries over water,” Johnson said. “I think all the teams struggled with that issue, but we played much better in round two and shot our lowest round of the Spring.”
Up next for the Blinn men’s and women’s teams is the Blinn Invitational on Monday, April 8, at the Brenham Country Club in Brenham, Texas.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 45 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
