The rain may have washed out 18 holes of a scheduled 54 at the men’s golf tournament, but it didn’t dampen the team’s spirit. The team finished fifth out of a field of 14 at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate, beating, among others, the No. 3 Oklahoma State Cowboys.

The tournament results moved the Horned Frogs up in the national ranking of No. 36 to No. 30 and keeps the team in third place in the Mountain West Conference.

“This is the best tournament we’ve had all year,” head coach Bill Montigel said.

Montigel said he felt this way because the team had three players in the top 20, moving closer to its goal of having all five players finish a tournament in the top 20.

Sophomore Jesse Speirs shot a one-over-par 73 Monday and three-under 69 Tuesday to finish tied for eighth in a career-best performance and second straight top-20 finish.

Senior Drew Stoltz also had a share of eighth place in the tournament and registered his third top-10 finish of the year. He has played in six events this year.

Stoltz said the team did really well, beating some really good teams even though it had to play without sophomore Jon McLean, who is ranked No. 57 in the nation. McLean is currently sidelined with pneumonia.

Freshman Travis Woolf finished tied for 20th place, making this his second top-20 placement in three career tournaments.

“It feels good knowing you can compete with some of the best in the nation and really helping our team win,” Woolf said.

TCU finished ahead of conference rivals the No. 12 Brigham Young Cougars as well as the No. 60 New Mexico Lobos.

The only team in the conference to beat TCU was the No. 8 Nevada-Las Vegas Rebels.

Looking ahead to the competition for the conference title, Montigel said, “Our conference is one of the best in the country, and we’re going to have to play good and keep getting better.”

Stoltz was confident in his teammates.

“We’re as talented as anyone in conference,” Stoltz said.