After a rough fall season, the GW golf team returned to the links in March for three outings, including its latest tournament – a 10th-place finish at the Loyola Invitational in Baltimore, Md. March 23 and 24.

GW’s team score of (642) placed the Colonials in the middle of the field of 20 teams at the two-day event at Hunt Valley Country Club. Many area teams in the tournament were able to shoot lower scores than GW, though, including the invitational champion Georgetown University (619), Loyola College (624, second place) and American University (625, third).

Head coach Scott Allen started four freshmen and one sophomore, and benched senior and number one player Luis Barrutieta.

“Given the youth and inexperience that were on the course for us, I was satisfied with the performance,” Allen said. Barrutieta, who holds the lowest scoring average (78.88) on the team, was forced to sit out during the invitational after he posted poor scores in intra-squad qualifying earlier in March.

The lone sophomore who started for GW at the invitational, Dan Reardon, led the Colonials to their 10th-place finish. Reardon posted a 77 and a 78 to finish at 155 and earn a tie for ninth place in the tournament.

“That was probably the best performance I have seen out of Dan since he’s been at GW,” Allen said of Reardon, who has started in 16 matches for the Colonials this season.

The four freshmen struggled at Hunt Valley, as none of the remaining starters was able to break into the 70s in either of the two rounds. Gavin Parsons was GW’s second-best finisher with back-to-back rounds of 80 to post a 160.

Hunt Valley, a par-72 course, preyed on the inexperience of the Colonials, according to Allen. The cold, rainy and windy conditions along with bumpy greens frustrated GW’s golfers.

“There were just a lot of freshman errors out there and a lot of mental mistakes,” Allen said.

Earlier in the spring GW finished 15th at the William & Mary Invitational in Williamsburg, Va. Mar. 9 and 10 – and easily defeated the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Warwick, Bermuda as a part of the team’s spring break.

The Colonials won’t be back in action again until April 12-14, when they will compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship. The A-10 Tournament will be a 54-hole event played at Southpointe Golf Club in Pittsburgh, Pa.