Rutkin ties for third place at NESCAC Men's Golf Championship Fall Qualifier

Brad Rutkin earned All-NESCAC honors by tying for third place at the NESCAC Men's Golf Championship Fall Qualifier on Oct. 4, 2015 in Williamstown, Massachusetts. (File photo by Sarah Crosby/Bates College)

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Junior captain Brad Rutkin tied for third place among 50 individuals, leading the Bates men's golf team to a seventh-place finish out of 10 teams as the NESCAC Men's Golf Championship Qualifier concluded Sunday at Taconic Golf Club.

Rutkin (Great Neck, N.Y.) finished 10 strokes over par over the two days at 152, carding a 75 on Saturday and a 77 on Sunday. Only Scott Guidotti (148) and Reid Buzby (151) of tournament winner Middlebury fared better in the field.

Rutkin will receive his first NESCAC All-Conference award for placing in the top 10 at the tournament, becoming Bates' first All-NESCAC performer since Garrett Johnson in 2013.

Bates' four-man, two-day combined score of 654 put the Bobcats seven strokes behind sixth-place Tufts and 32 strokes ahead of eighth-place Wesleyan. Bates finished eighth at the tournament a year ago. Colby and Bowdoin tied for ninth place.

The tournament's top four teams -- Middlebury, Trinity, Hamilton and Amherst -- will play for the conference title in the spring at Middlebury.

Competing in his first collegiate tournament, first-year Liam McLoughlin (New Smyrna Beach, Fla.) tied for 29th place overall and was second on the team with a two-day score of 166, including a 79 on Saturday. Sophomore Matt Marcus (Newton, Mass.) and junior captain Alex Stekler (Avon, Conn.) both shot 80s on Sunday, putting Marcus in a tie for 31st place at 167 and Stekler in 34th place at 169. Sophomore Spencer Pierce (Winnetka, Ill.) submitted a 184 over two days.

Bates hosts the CBB Tournament on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Martindale Country Club in Auburn.