The Riverhawks golf team placed first in three of four tournaments in April.

First-year transfer studies student Parker Black averaged 80 strokes per 18 holes. His best performance was at the 2nd Annual South River Shootout tournament, where he shot a 72 on April 4. In the other three tournaments, Black scored a 79, 86 and 83.

“Parker is a heck of a player,” head coach Dave O’Donnell said. “He actually plays at South River regularly outside of our team, so he knows the course very well. … He’s a golfer that’s capable of shooting par or better on any course he plays.”

The Riverhawks as a team scored a 314, 331, 354 and 342 in the tournaments—an average of 74.5 strokes per 18 holes. That’s a combined total for six players.

“That’s a really strong play,” O’Donnell noted. “What’s going right is we have a really strong team. Top to bottom all six guys are very capable [of] shooting in the 70s or 80s.”

The Riverhawks will travel to the College of Southern Maryland today at noon to compete in the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference championship.

“If they go out and play the game that they’re capable of, there’s no one that can stop us,” O’Donnell said.

Black agreed.

“We should be able to win the conference and then we’ll see what happens at regionals,” he said.

Second-year psychology student Austin Smith, who averaged 86.5 strokes through four tournaments, said the weather has worked out in the team’s favor this season.

“We’ve been very blessed with the weather this year, as opposed to last year [when] we had to play in hail, snow [and] rain,” Smith said. “I think it should have only helped our scores.”

Black said the chipping and putting game is “something I practice quite a bit. So I try to keep that as one of my strengths. I know we work on it a lot at practice, so that’s something we all have the ability to do well, from day to day.”