The men’s golf team returned from the Princeton Invitational at the Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, N.J. this past weekend with a fifth place team finish. Junior Brendan Kelly earned himself a second place finish in the individual standings. 

Through two rounds of play, the Wildcats found themselves sitting in ninth place overall with one more round to be played on Sunday. 

The ‘Cats used the final round to move up four spots in the overall team standings, shooting 288 as a team. 

Villanova shot 304 in the first round of play and 297 in the second round. The ‘Cats finished the tournament with an overall team score of 889.

Propelling the Wildcats up the standings was Kelly, whose even par for the weekend was good enough for second place, three strokes behind Yale’s Tom McCarthy. Kelly shot a sizzling 68, 74 and 71 in the first, second and third rounds, respectively.

Coming in second for the Villanova team was sophomore Brian Colbert who shot a +10 for the weekend and tied for 22nd overall. Junior Colin List shot +12 through three rounds, good enough for 32nd place overall. Freshman Steve Skurla tied for 53rd behind a +16 weekend of golf. 

Rounding out the top five for the Wildcats was junior Conor Casey who shot +20 and tied for 62nd overall.

With their fifth place finish at this Invitational, the ‘Cats have now finished in the top 10 as a team five times this year.

The Big East Championship is next on the schedule for the Wildcats. Last year, Villanova finished 10th overall in the standings and was paced by Kelly. The tournament is set for April 17-20 at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Fla.