Annika Dyczkowski ’25
Executive Sports Editor
Trinity men’s golf found success in Williamsport, PA on Sunday, September 28 when they brought The Northeast Elite Tournament first place title to Hartford. After competing in this tournament for the first time, the Bantams shot three-under-par and earned first place against 19 other schools, winning by eight shots. The Tripod had the opportunity to discuss this victory with head coach Jack Junge ‘19.
After graduating from Trinity with a B.A. in History, Junge immediately began working for the Athletic Department and taking classes to earn his M.A. in Public Policy. He began as an assistant coach for both the men’s golf team and the women’s ice hockey team at Trinity for four and five years, respectively. As a former player and captain for the team, Junge shares that his favorite part of being a coach is the camaraderie. “I love seeing the fun banter during practice or when we’re driving to tournaments. Just seeing the guys get closer is the best.” This is Junge’s second season as head coach for men’s golf.
Including their victory in The Northeast Elite Invitational, the Bantams have competed in three tournaments so far this season. At the Duke Nelson Invitational hosted by Middlebury College Saturday, September 14 through Sunday, September 15, the Bantams finished in sixth place out of 23 total teams. At the Williams Fall Invitational hosted by Williams College Saturday, September 21 through Sunday, September 22, the team finished seventh out of 19.
“Both those results were definitely not what we were looking for,” comments Junge. “We came into the year with extremely high expectations because we had a lot of success last year, we finished first or second in pretty much every tournament.”
With respect to the Bantams success last season, Junge explained his adjustment to a new season with new talent, “After the first weekend I realized that this team is gonna be a lot different. We’ve got a lot of younger players on the roster this year, so our approach to tournaments needs to be a little different.” He continued, “I think we were getting too far ahead of ourselves and before we even started a tournament we were thinking about winning the championship.” Junge concluded, speaking on what drove their success in their most recent tournament, “We just needed to get back to the basics and [stick] to the process of what makes each player a good golfer, just thinking one shot at a time. We weren’t gonna let the excitement of potentially winning or the frustration of a bad hole get in our way.”
As the Bantams had never competed in The Northeast Elite Invitational before this season, the team was completely unfamiliar with the course. In addition to a new course, the Bantams also faced new competition, with many teams having won their conference last season. “We didn’t really have any expectations, we just went out there and played our best,” said Junge. “After the first day we were in the lead and that gave us a lot of confidence going into the second day, since we didn’t even know the course at all.”
Thomas Chalfant ’27, a key player for the Bantams who tied for third in the tournament out of 175 players, shared his expectations going into the weekend. “I think the team has always had enough talent to win each week, but it took us some time for our skills to match our scores. After a week of good practice we were able to put it all together as a team and get the first win of the year.” Chalfant was also selected to the 2024 PING All-Region Team last spring as the second first-year on the list in program history.
Junge shared his reasoning for competing in a new tournament, “I think we can sometimes get in a rut of playing in the same tournaments each weekend and seeing the same teams. This [tournament] is a pretty new event and [hosted] teams from Ohio to Maine with at least half of the teams being conference champions. I decided it was a good opportunity to play some really good competition.”
Junge describes the moment he realized the team had won the tournament. “You can look at the leaderboard throughout the day and it’s constantly updating throughout the day, but I didn’t check it at all because it just stresses me out. I finally looked when we were on our last hole and we had like a ten-shot lead, so it was a very satisfying feeling [knowing] we were going to win the tournament.” Although the Bantams had the security of a ten-shot lead on the last hole, Junge describes that expectations going into the tournament were focused on “one shot at a time.”
“As far as expectations going in, I think we did our best to not have any.” He elaborated on this sentiment, “In golf, if you start thinking too much about the end result or mistakes you made in the past, it’s not going to help you. It’s about staying present and I think we’ve done a lot better job of that as the season has gone on.”
Expectations beyond this one tournament lie within one ultimate goal, which Junge says is winning the conference. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say our goal is to win the NESCAC Championship.” Junge compares their goals this season to last season, stating “we were the best team throughout the whole season and we learned last year that your NCAA opportunities rely on whether or not you win the NESCAC championship.” He continues, “The more you start thinking about the end goal and the result, the more nervous it makes you and that doesn’t help you in golf at all. I think we put too much focus on that last year and this year we’re just trying to get better each day.”
The Bantams’ next tournament is hosted by Skidmore College in the Skidmore Fall Invitational from Saturday, October 12 through Sunday, October 13 in Saratoga Springs, NY. Chalfant is looking forward to another weekend of good competition, stating “Our effort in practice translates to our success on the weekends, so working hard each day will give us the best chance to win again at Skidmore.”
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