By Jordan Miller, Staff Writer
Fifteen collegiate golf teams gathered Sept. 24-25 to shoot it out in the Battle at Blackthorn two-day tournament in South Bend, Ind.
The Taylor men's team stroked their way to a respectable seventh in the tournament with a total of 629 for both days. The women's team, in their first official two-day event, continues to build their newly founded program.
Junior Elliot Day led the team with scores of 74-78 which tied him for 11th individually at 152 strokes overall.
Another key player was junior Brandon Tereshko, who took home 18th and was two strokes off Day with 154 between both days.
"Both of those guys played pretty well," said Coach Cam Andry. "I was pleased with how they played throughout the whole tournament. The other three guys, we've got to get them to where I know they can be, and we'll be able to compete a little bit better with those top tier teams."
Although the team finished in the upper half of the tournament, Andry and the team are not satisfied.
"Seventh is not quite good enough," Andry said. "We're better than that, and we've got to prove that. For us, it starts day in and day out at practice and how dedicated we are at getting better."
Through hard work and attention to detail, Andry looks to build the rest of his players' potential.
"We'll have to get better at just eliminating big mistakes," Andry said. "Bogeys don't kill you, but double bogeys and bigger are hard to get back from. But I think probably more than anything is that we have to get better mentally. Talent and skill level are plenty good enough. We've got to make sure that we are refining our approach to the game so that when we show up we're ready to play and put together a solid 18 holes of golf."
In their first year ever, the Taylor women's golf team competed in their first official two-day tournament.
"We found out in the spring that we were going to have women's golf this year," Andry said, "so it'll be a slow building process to build up a full team."
With only three players, the women's team was unable to post a team score, which requires four players.
Freshman Elaina Mellott paved the way with 91-99, while freshman Meagan Devries shot a 107-105, and freshman Erin Erickson posted a 119-123.
As they continue to build the program at Taylor, Andry and the team approach each event with high optimism.
"All you can ask for them is that they compete hard, and so that's what they did," Andry said. "I was proud of the way that they carried themselves and the way they competed."
The Taylor golf teams look to finish out their fall schedule with the Taylor University Fall Invitational Oct. 10 and 11 in Ada, Mich.
