Fresh off a victory in the CCSU Fall Invitational this past Monday, the Boston College men’s golf team took a road trip down the coast to Chapel Hill for the Tar Heel Intercollegiate tournament. The weekend-long event boasted participants from primarily southeastern states, and BC was the furthest traveler for the contest.
The Eagles’ group of five players consisted of seniors Max Christiana and John Jackopsic, junior Nick Pandelena, and freshmen Patrick Hallisey and Connor Greenleaf. Overall, the Eagles finished in 13th place with a score of 878, good for 14-over-par as a squad. The hosts from the University of North Carolina emerged victorious 40 strokes ahead of BC with an incredible 26-under performance as a team, 23 strokes better than the second place UNC-Greensboro. The Tar Heels’ own Ben Griffin won the individual title, completing the weekend 10 strokes below par.
Pandelena was named Eagle of the Week by BC Athletics for his performance at CCSU, and he followed up that stellar weekend with an impressive top-10 finish in Chapel Hill. Despite an even outing on Friday, Pandelena finished his remaining two rounds below par with scores of 69 and 71, respectively. The sixth hole at UNC Finley Golf Course proved to be Pandelena’s strongest, as he birdied the par-5 in each of his three rounds. He was able to shoot himself up the leaderboard with three birdies on his last four holes of the weekend, moving up from 14th place to a tie for ninth.
Jackopsic sandwiched a phenomenal 4-under finish on Saturday, with two rounds above par to start and finish the tournament. His Saturday 68 was the lowest score for a BC golfer on the entire weekend. He finished 22nd overall.
The trio of Hallisey, Christiana, and Greenleaf each had a single round that did them in. For Greenleaf and Christiana, it was the opening round on Friday in which they each posted an 81. Hallisey shot out of the gate with an even-par opener, but faltered on Sunday with a 7-over score.
BC’s women golfers hiked up to New Hampshire to open their season at the Dartmouth Invitational. The five golfers sent to play for the Eagles were Cristina McQuiston, Katia Joo, Christina Wang, Jocelyn Chia and Katelyn Reynolds. Katie Barrand and Marissa Grillo also played in the tournament, but as individuals, so their scores didn’t count toward BC’s team score. Despite an impressive outing, the Eagles finished second in the invitational behind Boston University. BU’s Emily Tillo got a jump on the field with a score of 70 on day one and wouldn’t relinquish the lead on Sunday. Three of the top five individuals in the tournament were also from BU.
McQuiston impressed with a second-place finish, finishing three strokes behind Tillo for a 3-over weekend score. Her one-over round on Sunday was BC’s lowest at Dartmouth. Reynolds came next on the leaderboard for BC, turning in a performance good for a tie for 12th overall.
Chia, Joo, Wang and Barrand all finished within two strokes of each other with scores good enough to crack the top 30 in a tournament with over 75 participants. Grillo struggled on Saturday but rebounded with a round Sunday that was 14 strokes better than her previous one.
Featured Image by Jordan Pentaleri / Heights Graphic
