The Seton Hall men's golf team finished in fifth place at the Cavalier Classic in Charlottesville, Va., to conclude their spring season.
The Pirates finished 29 strokes behind repeat champion and host, Virginia, and three strokes short of fourth place, Virginia's B Team.
Junior John Dawson Neufeld had the best score of the Pirates, finishing tied for 13th out of 58 golfers in the tournament. Neufeld shot four strokes over par, 13 strokes behind champion Ben Raush from Virginia's B Team.
Sophomore Brandon Park and junior Troy Spencer shot identical rounds of 77 and 73, to finish tied for 16th, six strokes over par.
Freshman Gary Dunne shot 11 strokes over par to finish tied for 28th overall. In the second round he improved his first round score by three strokes.
Senior Borja Faixat finished tied for 46th place by shooting 17-over-par to complete his collegiate career.
The Pirates started the second round in sixth place, but improved from their first round score by seven strokes to move into fifth.
Head coach Clay White said the team shot pretty well. The level of competition was a "hand full" he said.
"It's always tough playing ACC teams, the teams are very deep," White said. "We let a few holes get away from us on the back nine."
White said the weather for the tournament had little impact on shooting. "It was a little breezy in the morning, but didn't affect the game that much," he said.
The team concluded the season with a 301.81 team stroke average for all tournaments, which is little over one stroke more than the fall season's average of 300.63.
The team's best finish was tying for fourth in the Fireline Invite in Grasonville, Md.
Park was named to the All-Big East team for his second consecutive season. He led the team in stroke average per round, shooting 74.13 this spring season.
Despite the team not playing as well as they could have, White said he was excited for the returning golfers, Park, Spencer, and Neufeld.
"Sometimes you have to take a small step back, to take a big leap forward," White said.
White wants the team to improve scoring on par five holes, as well as the short game. He said that he tries not to have expectations, however he wants to compete.
"I feel that we can compete for a Big East championship. I am excited for next year," he said.
T.J. Brennan can be reached at thomas.brennan@student.shu.edu.
