With both teams facing a fair amount of expectations after NCAA tournament births last year, the younger Colorado State golfers finished strong over a pair of two-day tournaments.
Sophomore Haley Greb again represented the women in the Coeur d’Alene Collegiate as she tied for fifth-place overall, a career best. Greb fared much better than her fellow Rams, and it all added up to a seventh-place team finish. Freshman Oscar Teiffel had a strong showing for the men’s team in the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational tournament as well, with a tenth-place finish.
I think the thing that has made her better quickly is the way she’s thought her way around the golf course.” Laura Cilek, coach
The women’s positioning was mostly static throughout the tournament, topping out in a tie for sixth after round one. The strong play from Greb was critical with senior Ellen Secor struggling for the second-straight tournament. Senior Katrina Prendergast was a steadying force through the first two rounds on Monday, with an even-par in both.
Greb and Prendergast were tied for 15th at the end of the second round after Greb dropped six strokes from her first to her second round. Greb has been the team’s number-one finisher in their first two tournaments.
“I think the thing that has made her better quickly is the way she’s thought her way around the golf course,” Coach Laura Cilek said. “Her course management has gotten considerably better just in the first two weeks of the season.”
From there it was mostly a job of maintaining, but despite the Rams having their worst round as a team in the second day, they were able to hold on to the three-way tie for seventh place. Three of the five Rams’ golfers had their worst round in the final round and the team finished at 30-over 882.
“I think they were a little more tired than they thought they were,” Cilek said. “It was extremely cold (Tuesday) morning, it just took us a while to kind of wake up. We didn’t really get off to a good start… and then toward the end we had some bigger numbers coming in. Again, it’s just about making smarter decisions on the golf course.”
Meanwhile, two men’s team players represented CSU at the Mark Simpson Invitational. Sophomore Cullen Plousha and Teiffel both had good finishes, but Teiffel finished 10th despite not being in the team’s top five yet this year.
“Oscar is such a hard worker,” Coach Christian Newton said. “It’s great to see him play well this week. This is how good he can be, I look for him to push to play in the top five all year.”
Plousha and Teiffel shot an even-par and 3-under 69 respectively in securing their spots on the leaderboard. Teiffel jumped 10 spots from the first day with his round three score. Plousha finished in a tie for 31st.
The two will join the men’s team at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate Sept. 27 in a tournament hosted by the University of New Mexico. The women will play their next tournament Oct. 5 in the Ron Moore Intercollegiate, hosted by Denver University.
Mack Beaulieu can be reached at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @MacknzJames.
