Steamboat Springs — The Sailors golf team had a strong start to its season last week with a second-place outing at Grand Junction, followed by two other top 5 finishes.

With a score of 223 in its first tournament in Grand Junction Aug. 14, Steamboat Springs finished No. 2 out of 22 teams.

In the tournament hosted by the winners Grand Junction High School the Sailors were the only team to beat 5A schools, coach Jason Deigert said.

The tournament was played at Tiara Rado Golf Course, which also will be the site of Steamboat’s regional tournament.

Steamboat continued to play well last Wednesday during Rifle High School’s tournament at the Rifle Creek Golf Course. The local team placed fourth behind Grand Junction, Rifle and Aspen with a score of 233.

Leading the team throughout the week was Jeff Franks, who had the Sailors’ lowest score of 72. The junior also had the highest individual finish for the Sailors with a third-place effort at the Tiara Rado course.

Franks also finished in the top 10 at Rifle with a score of 75.

The Sailors lost two strong players to graduation last year, but Deigert believes his top three lineup of seniors Quinn Coale, Eric Scholl and Franks will improve the team.

With scores of 75 and 76, Scholl took sixth and Coale placed ninth at the Grand Junction tournament.

Coale led the team in its third tournament at the Yampa Valley Golf Course, which was played host to by Moffat County High School on Friday.

Coale took eighth place and was the only Steamboat player to break under 80 with a score of 79.

Steamboat finished in fifth place with a score of 242.

“They were kind of golfed out. They weren’t into it mentally,” Deigert said.