On Saturday afternoon, the Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets men’s golf team placed tenth out of twelve teams at the Thiel Invitational in Hermitage, PA. 

Finishing the invitational in first was Wesminster College, with a team score of 298 strokes. Waynesburg’s final tally of 353 put them ahead of Bethany College (354) and Penn State Shenango (375).  

Leading the way for the Yellow Jackets was sophomore Matthew Karpeal. Karpeal, at 77 strokes, tied for tenth overall out of the 59 total golfers that competed in the event.  

Karpeal was satisfied with his top ten placement and offered an aspect of the game he needs to work on. 

“I was happy with the top ten finish,” Karpeal said.  “I want to be able to place well whenever I can. I just have to play against the course, and not against the rest of the field.” 

He also gave an area that the team needs to work on overall.  

“We definitely need to work on our short game. We struggled big time with that,” Karpeal said.  

Juniors Gage Fuller and Tyler Rollinson both shot a 90, which was tied for 47^th overall.  

Fuller added that he had more faith in himself in this match than in previous matches.  

“Your mindset is a large factor in how you perform on a golf course. Having that confidence and trust in yourself can get you to that next level,” Fuller said.  

Fuller also talked about limiting mistakes from a team standpoint. 

“The biggest thing we can do as a team is minimize our mistakes. Everyone is going to make mistakes on the course and doing what we need to do to minimize those mistakes is how we can get our scores down,” Fuller said.  

The team will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to Grove City for the MBA invitational at 1 p.m.