The Gophers improved their position on the leaderboard each day on their trip to California over the weekend.

Minnesota participated at The Goodwin in Palo Alto, California on the Stanford University campus. The tournament featured 26 teams and the Gophers finished tied for 16th place with a score of 20-over par on Sunday. Oklahoma won the event with a score of 24-under par.

Sophomore Thomas Longbella finished first among the team, finishing three-over par on the tournament and tying for 42nd overall. On the final day of competition, Longbella went two-under par to finish in 42nd place for the tournament. Senior Riley Johnson came in second among the team, finishing one shot behind Longbella for 47th in the field.

“This is the most competitive group I have seen. There is a really a lot of guys gunning for the top 5 spots,” Johnson said. “I think we showed our competitiveness this week and we will use this to hopefully finish the season strong.”

The Gophers entered the final day in 18th place. As a team, Minnesota had its best day in the final round, shooting even par: 289. Junior Peter Jones finished tied for 78th and third on the team in his first tournament of the spring.

Minnesota improved on day two of The Goodwin and moved up four spots from the previous day. After its first two rounds, Minnesota shot 15-over par as a team. Johnson shot one-under on the second day to lead the Gophers individually.

Jones finished third on the team after going three-over par on the final day. Freshman Angus Flanagan, who led the Gophers after day one, but finished fifth among the team by the time the event ended.

“We played some good golf and that is kind of what we are building to and looking to put 54 holes together,” head coach Justin Smith said. “There is good events coming up for us to keep working towards that.”