Golf placed 20th out of 24 teams in the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational in Colorado Springs, hosted by the Air Force Academy earlier this week.
In their first tournament of the season, the Revolutionaries finished 34-over par, scoring 898. They dug themselves into a hole early, totaling 309 shots in their first round, highest for the starting round and second highest overall, second only to 21-placed UC Riverside’s final-round score of 310.
The tournament is a yearly, 54-hole affair in which the top four scores out of a five-player team are counted. The host course, Eisenhower Golf Course, is a 7,297-yard par 72 on the grounds of the Air Force Academy.
The team was led by fifth-year senior Jakub Hrinda, with him finishing third best in the tournament out of the 120-player field. Hrinda was the only Rev golfer to finish under par, sitting at 10 under after his three rounds. His final score was aided by a 66 in his second round to go along with two 70s. For birdies, Hrinda finished second in the tournament with 17 total, just one behind the leader, Valpo’s Caleb VanArragon.
Colorado State University won the tournament, finishing 13 under par with a total team score of 851. They were led by Christoph Bleier, who tied for first in the tournament shooting 203, 13 under par. Bleier shot a 65 in his first round, seven under par and tied with Utah State’s Julio Arronte for the lowest single-round score in the tournament.
As a team, the Revolutionaries finished last in total pars with 142 — six fewer than the teams tied for second worst, UC Riverside and SIU Edwardsville.
While Hrinda paced the field with an impressive score, the rest of the team was not able to replicate his success. GW’s highest scorer, Luke Lyu, had only one birdie, the lowest in the tournament. He finished with a total score of 242 — 26 over par — with rounds of 81, 83 and 78, respectively, tying him for 117th best out of a field of 120.
Lyu was not alone in his triple-digit placement, with teammates sophomore Manuel Barbachano and freshman Aksel Moe tying for 104th and 112th places, respectively.
After averaging 72.69 in his 2022-23 season, Barbachano finished with scores of 77, 79 and 77, a sizable increase compared to his previous performance. As a sophomore, he looks to build off a promising freshman season after being rated by Junior Golf Scoreboard as the sixth-ranked international player in his class.
Graduate student Hugo Riboud earned GW’s second-best score, finishing 11 over par at 227, behind scores of 81, 74 and 72. Despite improving each round until ending with a round shooting par, Riboud tied 80th overall in the invitational out of 120 players, well into the bottom half of the field.
The Revs welcomed back seven of their eight players from last year’s squad, adding freshman Moe, who finished 25th at the German International Amateur Championship during his time in high school. Prior to concluding his last two years of high school at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., Moe attended Regents International School in Pattaya, Thailand where he was selected to the 2020 Junior Golf Tour of Asia All-Asia Team.
Head Coach Chuck Scheinost also brought Riboud and sophomores Barbachano, Lyu, Jed Dy, and Leo Xu.
Xu and Dy both took part in individual play and scored 225 and 226, respectively.
Xu finished one of his rounds under par, shooting 71 first before rounds of 78 and 76. Dy shot 76, 75 and 75, a relatively consistent set of scores landing him 10 shots over par.
The Revs have an opportunity to get back on track with the VCU Shootout on deck for September 18 and 19. Held at The Country Club of Virginia, the tournament will be hosted by their Atlantic 10 foe VCU.
Last year at the Shootout, GW set a program record with a 54-hole score of 829, good for 35 under par.
