Temple had a week off after its 16th place finish in the Wolfpack Intercollegiate in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Owls returned to action this week in Beallsville, Maryland for the Georgetown Intercollegiate. Temple finished sixth in a 12-team field. Just 12 strokes separated Temple and the event runner-up and host school Georgetown.
The Owls were led by sophomore Trey Wren who turned in a 66 in the first round of the event and finished at fourth overall on the individual leaderboard with a three-round score of 209 which was four strokes under par for the tournament.
Junior Mark Farley was next Temple’s scorecard with rounds of 72, 73 and 74 respectively to finish at six over. Redshirt freshman Erik Reisner was the Owls’ third-lowest scorer at nine-over while sophomore Sam Soeth and redshirt sophomore John rounded out the field for Temple.
Despite finishing so high on the individual leaderboard, Wren downplayed his performance, indicating his success was simply due to strong execution.
“It was really nothing crazy,” Wren said. “I was just playing well and not making many mistakes and I just kind of ran into some birdies at the end of the round.”
However, coach Brian Quinn left Beallsville overjoyed for the sophomore.
“The kid is an absolute stud,” Quinn said of Wren. “He has one of the best golf swings I’ve ever seen. [Wren’s first round] was one of the best rounds I’ve ever witnessed as a coach at Temple University.”
It’s high praise considering Quinn is in his 10th season at Temple and the program’s most decorated golfer, Brandon Matthews, just graduated last spring. However, the Owls left the Georgetown Intercollegiate with other reasons for optimism besides Wren’s strong showing.
It wasn’t long ago that Quinn was shuffling the bottom of his lineup with regularity searching for consistent options at the fifth position. Reisner opened the event shooting back-to-back rounds of 75 and wrapped things up with a 72 to finish in a tie for 32nd on the 67-player leaderboard.
Reisner’s consistency did not go overlooked by Quinn, who plans to take the same five to the Temple’s next event, the Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational in Stockton, California on October 29-30.
“As good as Trey played, what was just say important was Erik Reisner stepping up and shooting a 75 [in the first two rounds] as our five guy,” Quinn said.
The elder statesman of Temple’s lineup, Farley, acknowledged he felt the team showed lots of poise in bouncing back from its struggles in Raleigh.
“We’re just learning how good we can really be and still building that confidence,” Farley said. “It was good to see how much fight we all have and see guys step up to the plate.”
With 10 days before heading west, Quinn wants his team to strive for more given how competitive the team leaderboard was from second down to sixth where his team finished.
“We got a long way to go,” Quinn said. “We should have comfortably finished in second place. We left a lot of shots out there.”
Greg Frank can be reached at Greg.Frank@Temple.edu or on Twitter @g_frank6.
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