The Baker men’s and women’s golf teams made the trip to the Saline Country Club to compete in the Kansas Wesleyan Fall Invitational on Monday and Tuesday. The men’s team finished eighth out of 14 teams, and the women’s team finished second out of the five teams competing.

Standout performances came from junior Riley Kemmer, who finished tied for 14h on the men’s team with a two-day total of 147, and sophomore Samantha Mitchell, who finished tied for second on the women’s team with a two-day total of 166.

Both Monday and Tuesday proved to hold tough conditions, not only on the course, but with the weather as well.

“The first day was really nice temperature-wise, but (winds were) blowing about 30 mph, which made it definitely difficult,” Mitchell said. “There were a lot of trees on the course, but they weren’t super tall so they still affected your ball in some spots, but not in others.”

Mitchell led the tournament after the first day shooting an 81. The second day began an hour later than scheduled due to a rain delay, but the rain wasn’t the only difficulty of the second day.

“They had some really difficult hole placements, definitely tight, either on one side of the green or the other and never really in the middle, never an easy go-for-it kind of hole placement,” Mitchell said. “It was also pretty windy, definitely. We fit it in between storms because it stormed the morning of and then pretty soon after we finished, so it was the between the storm kind of weather, very windy and humid so it affected play.”

At the end of the second day, Mitchell placed second, just one stroke behind Aspen Bryant from Bethany College who shot an 83 the first day and an 82 the second. Mitchell’s tournament total was 166 which left her tied with Kari Kirl from Central Christian for second place.

As a team, the Baker women’s team finished with a total score of 706, falling behind Kansas Wesleyan with a first-place total of 698. The Baker men’s golf team finished with a team total of 607 after the two days.

Other notable finishes included men’s golfer Christian Bickley tying for 19th with a total score of 149. For the women, Bailey Gibson finishing with a total score of 178, while Hannah Daugherty finished with a 189, putting both of them in the top 15 individuals.

The Baker women’s golf team will now travel alone to Oskaloosa, Iowa, to compete in the William Penn Invitational at Edmundson Golf Course Oct. 9-10. The men’s golf team will not compete again until late October at the Columbia College Fall Invitational at Columbia Country Club.