The St. Thomas Aquinas Men's golf team had a nice showing at the Buccaneer Invitational hosted by Barry University down in Miami, FL. The field was filled with many of the top teams in the country including the #1 ranked Nova Southeastern University Sharks.
After a long, cold winter, the Spartans played two solid rounds of golf on day 1-shooting team scores of 297 and 302. Leading the team was Kevin Gately who carded rounds of 73-74. Also playing well was junior Chris Gentle who managed to shoot 80-71. Gentle rebounded after starting his day with a quadruple and double bogey to shoot a team low 71. Kai Rastetter and Nik Koerner posted rounds of 74-79 respectively while freshman Michael Miranda shot 76 and 78 to round out the team scoring. The team sat in 11th place out of the 17 team field entering the final round on Tuesday.
In the final round the Spartans played their best round of the short spring shooting 294. Gentle continued his strong play, firing a career low round of 69. His 3 day score of 220 (80-71-69) earned him a T-21 finish among some of the nation's best players. Kevin Gately continued his fine play this spring and battled to card a 75. Gately was able to birdie the 200 yard par-3 17th hole and then got up and down from 90 yards on his 18th hole to save par. Gately's 222 (73-74-75) was good for 27th place in the event. Kai Rastetter bounced back nicely in his final round, shooting 73. After battling with the flat stick all day, Rastetter was able to birdie his final hole of the day to finish at 226 (74-79-73) in 47th place. Senior Nik Koerner battled all day to shoot 77 and finished the event in a tie for 57th place at 230 (74-79-77). Freshman Michael Miranda carded a round of 79 and shot 233 (76-78-79) and finished tied for 66th.
The Spartans 54-hole score of 893 moved them up 3 spots to 8th place ahead of the #6 ranked St. Leo Lions and the #12 Central Oklahoma Broncos. After a solid trip south, the Spartans are looking to move up from their current national ranking of 46th in the country. The boys are off for the holiday and then back in action down at Rum Pointe Golf Club for the 14th annual St. Thomas Aquinas College Invitational.