On Tuesday, both Oregon men’s and women’s golf secured second-place finishes at the Duck Invitational and Charles Schwab Women’s Collegiate Invitational, respectively. Kiara Romero took home first place in Fort Worth, while Aiden Krafft finished second at home in Eugene.

At the Charles Schwab Collegiate Invitational, Romero soared past the competition with a six-under-par finish following three rounds of play. The first day yielded solid results for her, shooting one under par following a bogey on the opening hole to kick off the tournament in first place. Romero held her lead through the end of the tournament after shooting two and three under in the final two rounds. 

Another strong performance came from Sophie Han, who finished ninth in the tournament with an overall score of three over par. Following a shaky first two rounds, with scores of one and three over par, she finished the last day with a strong one under scoreline after opening the round with three straight birdies.

Tong An finished in 19th place with a final score of seven over par, an improvement on her score of eight over par at the GameAbove Golf Invitational earlier this month. Darae Chung and Shyla Singh rounded out the final team scores, tied at nine over par, and finished tied for 27th place.

Overall, the team played quite well, only three strokes behind No. 1 Stanford, which took home the team trophy. This is a great sign for the Ducks as they play one more tournament before the Big Ten championship, the Silverado Showdown, on April 6 in Napa, California.  

Back in Eugene, the men’s team struggled to fight back against the No. 9-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini, who finished 10 strokes ahead of the Ducks to take home the trophy at Eugene Country Club.

Krafft led amongst non-individual players (who don’t count toward team totals) through the final day, only trailing Illinois junior Mex Herendeen (individual), who finished 5 strokes ahead of Krafft’s six under par. A dominant five-under-par first round score from Krafft gave Oregon solid momentum through the first day, but things slowed down for him after par and one under par finishes in the final rounds.

Ramil Saelim followed up his strong performance at the Bandon Dunes Championship earlier this month with a strong seventh-place finish with a final score of two over par. He trailed early, following two poor performances of two and three-over-par in the first two rounds. In the third round, he skyrocketed in the standings, going from 35th to seventh after shooting three under par to close out the tournament.

Jeffery Kwak had a strong outing alongside Kyreece Romero, Teddy Vigna, and Tim Chang, who all competed individually. Kwak finished tied for 12th, shooting three over par. Romero finished tied for 25th with Casper Nerpin, shooting six over par. Vigna and Chang did not fare as well, finishing 45th and 54th with scores of 10 and 12 over, respectively.

Oscar Lent and Sebastian Desoisa also struggled, shooting 15 and 16 over par and finishing 63rd and 66th, respectively.

Although the Ducks were nowhere close to first-place Illinois, their performance was indicative of a team that can compete and improve from previous performances. Oregon also beat two top 50 teams, No. 31 Hawaii-Hilo and No. 48 Cincinnati.

The men’s team has a quick turnaround, heading out to Stanford, California, for The Goodwin at the Stanford Golf Course on March 26.