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The Point men’s golf team entered this week ranked eighth in the country, and it continued to impress with its strong showing in the first round of the Maryville College Invitational in Lenoir City, Tennessee on Monday.

The Skyhawks finished in first out of 13 teams, and they shot seven-over-par as a team.

They’re six strokes ahead of second place Hampden-Sydney College’s B team.

Point was led by freshman Jacob Joseph, who finished 4-under. He was the only player in the entire tournament to finish the first round under par.

Point’s number four golfer, Jan Hendrick Nieuwoudt, finished second on the team with a score of 74, which is two-over-par.

Point head coach Maddux Lytle was pleased with his team’s performance, but he wanted to see even more from his guys.

“To be fair, I don’t think we played our best,” Lytle said. “Our one and two guys, Trevor Poole and Brendan Porter, didn’t put together their best rounds. They both finished well. They didn’t have a great front nine, but they bounced back. That’s kind of what you expect from your senior leaders.”

Porter finished 5-over-par, and Poole finished 6-over-par. They started on the back nine, which was the hilliest part of the course.

“All of the freshmen were solid,” Lytle said. “Jacob Joseph had a really good round. Michael Thomas shot 5-over-par. He settled in and kept it together. I was overall pretty proud of how they played. I expect them to go out there and shoot a lower round tomorrow.”

Joseph also had an eagle on the twelfth hole, and it was one of three eagles throughout the whole round.

“He hit the ball really well today,” Lytle said. “The greens out there are new, so they haven’t been able to cut them down. They’re really slow. He started off the round with a short miss for par. It was a pretty solid round. He didn’t make too many mistakes.”

The Skyhawks had the best average score of any team on par threes, par fours and par fives. They also had the most birdies and pars of any team.

Even though they dominated in every category, Lytle knows they can be even better.

“Hopefully, the greens will be a little quicker tomorrow,” Lytle said. “The scores were lower last year because the greens were faster. We’ll have a meeting before we go to dinner. There’s going to be a lot of constructive feedback. I don’t think we should’ve shot over par on this course. We’ll just try to keep the ball in play. Everybody has to deal with the same conditions. We’re here to win. It can always be better, but it can always be worse.”

The Skyhawks will finish out the Maryville College Invitational on Tuesday as they hope to bump their way into a top five ranking with a win. They’ll tee off Tuesday morning with a 10 stroke lead.