Despite the tropical weather, the No. 11 Northwestern men’s golf team left San Juan, Puerto Rico on Tuesday disappointed after tying for ninth at the 18-team Puerto Rico Classic.

No. 23 Oklahoma St. won the tournament, which featured eight of the nation’s top 15 teams.

Senior Bjorn Widerstedt led the Wildcats. His 4-over score of 220 was good for 20th among 90 golfers.

No. 9 Minnesota, the Cats’ fiercest rival in the Big Ten, tied for second at the three-round tournament and finished 24 strokes ahead of NU.

“We’re going to need to get a lot better if we want to beat Minnesota and win the Big Ten,” assistant coach Erik Ciotti said. “It’s unfortunate, but they really drummed us pretty good.”

Senior Scott Harrington said losing to Minnesota would not hurt the team’s psyche.

“We know Minnesota is a good team, but they also know we’re a good team,” Harrington said. “It doesn’t hurt our confidence at all. We know we could have won this tournament.”

Harrington, just two weeks removed from his first collegiate victory at the Rice Intercollegiate Championship, finished 61st.

“It’s by far my worst tournament of the year and the worst tournament I’ve played in a long time,” he said. “It was incredibly disappointing.”

Ciotti said he was unhappy with the play of most of the team but pleased with the performance of freshman Bryson Young, who finished 41st in his first collegiate team competition. Young finished ninth at the Rice tournament, but his scores were not counted in the team score.

“He really played solid the last two rounds,” Ciotti said. “I think he can really be a force for us.”

Junior Tom Johnson finished 35th in Puerto Rico, and junior Casey Strunk finished 67th.

Although the weather was serene — golfers were able to work on their tans at the beach — Ciotti said conditions could have played a role in the team’s poor performance. NU had to play later in the day on Sunday and Monday and faced stiff winds.

“We got a little bit of a bad break,” he said.

Both Ciotti and Harrington said it was especially unfortunate that the poor performance came at such a quality tournament. Before the tournament, the Cats were 50-15-2, but only 3-8-1 against Top 25 teams.

“We didn’t establish ourselves,” Ciotti said.

Ciotti and volunteer assistant Jeff Mory took the team to Puerto Rico while head coach Pat Goss stayed behind in Evanston. Goss’ wife gave birth to a baby girl Feb. 19, Ciotti said.

Harrington said he had fun on the trip but didn’t leave Puerto Rico satisfied.

“Let’s just say it was a miserable flight home,” he said.