by Patrick Gustavson

In their last tournament before heading to the Northeast Conference Championships, Central Connecticut’s women’s golf team finished fifth out of 10 schools at the Hartford Invitational at Tumblebrook Golf Club in nearby Bloomfield, Connecticut.

Intended to be a two-round tournament, it was cut short to just one round due to the inclement weather on Sunday.

Leading the way for the Blue Devils on Saturday was freshman Meghan McLean and senior Cecy Gutierrez, who both shot a 76, good enough for a tie of 13th place overall.

Freshman Olivia Gardenhour also shot a sub-80 score, finishing with a 79, putting herself in a tie for 23rd place.

The other two members of the team, freshman Alexa Brown and senior Tara Whelan, shot an 81 and 83, respectively.

The top four scores gave the Blue Devils a first-round score of 312, leaving them 14 strokes behind fellow NEC school Fairleigh Dickinson, who won the tournament with a score of 298.

Freshman Roxanne Garceau also played in the tournament as an individual and hit an 85, putting her in eighth place out of the 13 golfers who played as individuals and in a tie for 49th place out of all golfers.

Despite the strong overall finish, the Blue Devils finished behind both of the other NEC schools: FDU and Sacred Heart, who finished second with an overall score of 299, just one stroke off the lead.

The Blue Devils will be chasing those two schools, as well as trying to fend off the others in the conference when they head down to Daytona Beach, Florida this weekend for the conference championship.