DeKALB — The men’s golf team closed out its fall season with a top-five finish Monday and Tuesday at the Pinetree Intercollegiate.

The Huskies moved up from the first day of play where they were sixth after the first day with a 298.

Head Coach Tom Porten was happy with the team’s play as it improved from the first day of play.

“I really liked the fight and the patience we showed today,” Porten said. “It was a good experience [for the team] to face adversity early and battle back.”

The Huskies were led by redshirt senior Joo-Young Lee and junior Thomas DeMarco, who both finished eighth place overall with an overall score of one over par.

Porten was happy with the play of his two leaders and hopes it carries over to the spring season beginning in March.

“They’re playing [good golf] ,and that’s the goal for them, either to be top five or top-10 in each event,” Porten said. It’s nice to see them both finish the fall with top 10 [finishes], and if we’re going to do anything in the spring, we need them to [play well].”

Porten noted consistency at the end of the lineup has been a problem all season, as Lee, DeMarco and sophomore Jordan Less have solidified the first three spots. The team has rotated those last two positions all year.

“[We have not been able to] get consistency out of our four and five spots,” Porten said. “We have had a bunch of different lineups, and I think we’re going to need to solidify those spots.”

The team will go into winter training with event play resuming in March. The team saw its best finishes at this event and the Northern Intercollegiate Sept. 25, with its worst event coming Oct. 19 at the Windon Memorial Classic with a 14th place finish.

Porten said the biggest problem with the team this fall is its short game and hopes to improve on that going into the spring.

The team will hope for good weather in training for its next event in March.

“[Training] starts from the hole [going] backward,” Porten said. “Today we had a lot of opportunities to make birdies, but we just didn’t convert. We missed at least five or six putts inside 15 feet that you would expect to make two or three of those [putts].”

The team will pick back up March 9 at the Jackrabbit Invitational at Boulder Creek Golf Course in Boulder City, Nevada.