With gusts up to 40 miles per hour at The Links in Jacksonville, Ill., No. 5 Washington University did just enough to withstand the weather and earn its first victory of the spring.

The team defeated No. 11 Illinois Wesleyan University and No. 12 North Central College at the Illinois College Spring Invitational this past weekend, its second of the year, with a score of 686.

“This weekend was definitely a test of mental strength. With those conditions, the tournament became less about who had the best swing and more about who had the best mindset,” sophomore Hannah Buck said. “It would have been easy to just give up, but that’s not the kind of team we are. I just [kept] in mind that everyone was playing the same conditions and tried not to stress about what I couldn’t control.”

Buck and freshman Andi Hibbert led the way for the Bears, sharing medalist honors with identical first-round scores of 80 and second-round scores of 85 on Sunday. For Buck, it was her fourth title of the year and the seventh of her career, breaking her school record for most individual wins in a season. Hibbert finally claimed her first individual victory after finishing in the top 10 five times prior.

The Bears grabbed the lead on the first day with a score of 333, which gave them a comfortable nine-stroke cushion over Illinois Wesleyan. Although the 353 on the second day was the team’s worst 18-hole score of the year, the Titans were unable to catch up, as they posted a 356 to finish 12 strokes behind Wash. U.

In addition to the starting team, which was rounded out by freshman Allyson Chee (85-92, 177), freshman Marcy Koonce (88-94, 182) and sophomore Melanie Walsh (90-91, 181), the Bears also fielded a “green team” that took seventh place with a 36-hole total of 774. Junior Katie Homa (92-94, 186) led the second squad, finishing in a tie for 18th place.

The high numbers came as the result of abnormally high winds that actually threatened the completion of the tournament. Although United States Golf Association rules provide that the wind may move a golf ball at rest and that such a ball is not to be replaced but rather to be played as it lies, the high frequency of ball movement on the greens forced the rules committee to consider suspending play.

“When you see the ball quivering from the wind, you are scared with even the most straightforward of putts,” Hibbert said. She also said that she was able to adjust for the wind with regard to club selection.

The win is just another mark of the golf team’s dramatic transformation between last year’s and this year’s teams. After an impressive fall 2009 campaign, last year’s squad failed to continue its hot streak and did not win a single spring tournament. Buck, a Second Team All-American selection last year, called the first tournament of spring 2010, the Peggy Kirk Bell Invitational in Florida, “a disaster.” She said it added a lot of pressure while greatly damaging the team’s confidence.

Buck added that this year’s freshmen, a solid that possesses a sense of fearlessness after not dealing with last year’s troubles, have definitely helped and that she hopes that this win will serve as another building block.

“I see our team scores only getting lower as the season progresses,” Buck said. “Last spring, we started at the bottom and struggled to play our way back up the rankings. It’s nice to start off near the top this time.”

The season continues next week at the Katman Klassic hosted by No. 2 DePauw University, co-winner of last weekend’s Northern Kentucky University Invitational, where the Bears finished 11th.