By Alex Stoev (@alexstoevsjsu) – Spear Reporter | From left to right: Itai Cohen, Keshav Mungali, Avinash Iyer, Ben Friedman, Ivan Barahona, Jed Dy, head coach John Kennaday holding their first place trophies (Photo courtesy of SJSU Athletics)
San Jose State men’s golf finished with its best outing of the season so far, finishing in first place out of 13 teams in the Jim DeLapa Collegiate on Sep. 28-29, hitting a total of 825 and shooting a -11 during the three rounds.
The Spartans finished round one tied for first place with St. Mary’s College of California with 271 strokes.
In round two, they tied with St. Mary’s again, but they also tied with Grand Canyon University, for seventh place with 285 strokes.
In the final round, SJSU finished first yet again, this time with 269 strokes, six less than second place in the round, Princeton University.
The leaders for SJSU were junior Keshav Mungali, who finished number two in the leaderboard, and senior Ivan Barahona who finished tied for fourth on the leaderboard.
With Mungali finishing second in the individual leaderboard, he became the highest ranked SJSU player this season, passing senior Avinash Iyer’s number five finish in the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational.
Iyer had more of an off outing this time around, finishing in 19th place with an even par, a big drop off from his fifth place finish last tournament.
SJSU started off strong, finishing round one shooting -9. They cooled off a little but in round two, shooting +5 but they played even better in the final round, shooting -11.
Mungali shot the best during his second place finish, shooting -13, while Barahona shot -6 during the tournament.
“It’s a very famous golf course in which our guys did quite well today. We’re right in the middle of it, right in the thick of things.” SJSU head coach John Kennaday said after day one of the tournament.
The Spartans will have a month-long break before traveling to Lahaina, Hawaii for the Ka’anapali Classic Collegiate Invitational on the Royal Ka’anapali Golf Course on Oct. 27-29.
