Hoping to follow up an impressive performance at the Husky Invitational, WSU men’s golf failed to show out, placing 12th at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational on Monday and Tuesday.

The Boulder-hosted, Mark Simpson invitational saw the same lineup as they had in the Husky Invitational for the Cougs, this time led by Pono Yanagi. The Hawaii native shot a 208 and finished fifth place on the individual player leaderboard.

This will be the first time the Cougs are back at the Boulder Country Club since the 2016-17 season, where that season’s Pac-12 Championship was played. A bit of a sour memory as the Cougars finished in 10th of 12.

The Cougars finished the two-day tournament in 12th place among 15 other squads, tying alongside the Utah State team. The only other Pac-12 team was the host, Colorado, who placed second.

Yanagi’s teammates Peter Jung and Preston Bebich both shot a 216 for the Cougars, earning themselves a tied 42nd place. Not far behind, was Jaden Cantafio, the junior from California shooting a 219. Sam Renner brought up the rear shooting a 222 for his team.

A few weeks ago, your Cougars came in first place at University of Washington-hosted, Husky invitational in Bremerton.

“I mean obviously you couldn’t ask for a better way to start the season. We like the group of guys that we have. And we felt like going over we had a good chance of playing well, you don’t ever really know, there’s so many variables with golf. Obviously, just exciting, an exciting time for our guys in our program,” Dustin White, WSU men’s golf head coach said. the head coach said. post-Husky invitational.

Led by Cantafio and Yanagi, the Cougs placed first, trumping the rival Huskies who finished in third place.

Both Cantafio and Yanagi earned themselves the respective individual player rankings of third and fifth. The junior and senior shot 213 and 214 respectively, closely followed by teammates Bebich, Renner and Jung.

“It was super fun, all the guys did really well, coaches are excited, we’re all excited. So it was a good trip overall. Honestly, I didn’t really know where we stood as a team until the last hole,” Cantafio said following the team’s first-place showing.

Not the same strong performance we were hoping for from the team, but no doubt the team will bounce back. The next competition for men’s golf will be the Oregon State Invitational in Corvallis, Oregon, from Monday to Tuesday, October 10-11.

The Cougs will then enjoy a rest period of a little more than a week back in Pullman before heading to the Stockton Invitational.