Men’s golf continued to improve its season score despite a 13th place out of 14 teams.

The Huskies finished Tuesday’s round with its second-best card of the fall, shooting a 305. The 302 NIU posted during the first round of the 54-hole tournament was the team’s best outing this season.

“I thought we played pretty well today,” said head coach Tom Porten. “We shot a 305 and beat out four or five teams in today’s round. We competed very well; it was a grind out there with the wind. They are getting better at handling adversity and their overall execution continues to improve.”

NIU posted its top two scores of the season during the first and final rounds. The Huskies struggled the most the middle round, shooting a 316.

“We took another step forward even though we have not played a complete tournament,” Porten said. “Our first round was OK and our last round was very competitive. We just have to take care of that middle round where we got really lost yesterday afternoon. We just have to get more consistent.”

NIU was led by junior Nick Huggins, who played in his last tournament of the year due to a nagging hip injury.

Despite the hip injury, Huggins finished tied for 33rd out of 74 golfers. He started the tournament strong, shooting a 73, and followed that up with a 77 and 76 to finish with a 226.

Huggins felt he played well in the Huskies’ third outing of the season.

“First round was a little easy but it should have been a lot lower,” Huggins said. “I did not get the ball in the hole on a couple shots. I feel I am going in the right direction. Short game is getting good; I’m getting better and better each week.”

Freshman Jake Curwin was six strokes behind Huggins, totaling a 232 to finish tied for 56th out of 74. Curwin put together a 77 during the first round and had a 79-76 to end the Badger Invitational.

Freshman Pierrick Fillon had a nice start with a 76 and followed that up with a 82 and 77 to total 235.

Freshman Caulen Coe had a final round of 76 to join Huggins and Curwin as the lowest Huskie round of the day. Coe tied for 71st with a 246.

“Caulen got off to a tough start having bogey after his first hole followed by a double bogey,” Porten said. “He bounced back and played his last 16 holes at one over par.”

Junior transfer student Liam White carded a 243 (76-78-89) to take 70th.

The Huskies will return to Wisconsin next weekend to compete in the invitational Sunday to Tuesday at Erin Hills Golf Course in Hartford.