DeKALB | The Huskies (310-299-301 — 910) tied for their best finish in the history of the Northern Collegiate with its fifth place finish over the weekend.

The Huskies represented themselves well in their event over the weekend, earning their first top five finish of the season. University of Illinois won the Northern Collegiate with a score of 845, their third win of the season and finished 53 strokes ahead of the second-place team Indiana University.

NIU hosted the event at Beverly Country Club, 8700 S. Western Ave Chicago, instead of its normal location of Rich Harvest Farms, 7S771 Dugan Road Sugar Grove, because Rich Harvest is scheduled to host the NCAA Championships in May.

“They ran a great event [at Beverly], and it was a success on all levels,” saidHead Coach Tom Porten. “It was a good golf course, great field, great weather and a great competitive balance.”

NIU was led by senior golfer Charlie Cameron (78-78-70 — 226) who led the Huskies with a sixteenth place individual finish.

“[Cameron had] such an outstanding [and] tactical final round,” Porten said. “He putted the ball well and managed his game really well.”

The team also got a good first-time performance from freshman Russell Matos (72-84-75 — 231), who finished in the top 30 in a 71-player field. Matos paced the Huskies with a score of 72 on day one.

The team stayed in the fifth or sixth spot for most of the round but minor mistakes made the difference in the team jumping into the top four.

“[I’m]A little disappointed we didn’t move up past Drake in the last round,” Porten said. “[Drake] putted the ball really well and managed their positions on the greens well.”

Porten credited the country club and the difficulty of the greens and said the players and coaches were complimenting the course on how challenging and well-kept the greens were.

“The greens at Beverly [Country Club] are as good as any greens you’ll find in the country,” Porten said. ”We’re learning our lessons as we play, and we’re getting better at making fewer mistakes on difficult greens like that.”

As tough as the greens were at Beverly Country Club, the main challenge for the Huskies is still getting a consistent group of scores across the board. NIU had to count a 76 from freshman Jordan Less as its second best scorer following Cameron’s 70 in the final round.

“We’re trying to get some consistency from players [one through five],” Porten said. “That is what we have been trying to build because it is a team game.”

The Huskies will keep that in mind as they close out the fall season starting Oct. 24 at the Pine Tree Intercollegiate in Birmingham, Alabama.