In its last go-around until the spring, the Binghamton University golf team capped off its fall season with an eighth-place overall finish at the Bruce Williams Memorial Invitational at The Dominion Club in San Antonio on Oct. 22-23. The event was hosted by Division II member St. Mary’s University and included a 12-team tournament field.
The Bearcats accumulated a 54-hole team total of 910, while Abilene Christian University posted a team score of 851 and won the event by 33 strokes over Cameron University. ACU had three top-five individual finishes, including tournament winner sophomore Corbin Renner (-12).
“Overall, the trip was OK,” Binghamton head coach Bernie Herceg said. “A big part of the trip was to get some experience on the golf course since we will be competing on that for our conference championship at the end of April.”
Junior Bryce Edmister led the way for the Bearcats with a 20th-place overall finish. Posting scores of 75, 72 and 78, Edmister finished the tournament with a two-day total of 225 (+9).
After a first round team score of 310, Binghamton bounced back the next day with a collective score of 296.
“The first round wasn’t that great,” Herceg said. “The second round, we made a little bit of a comeback, more to how we should perform. Overall, it was just an OK trip for the competition but a great trip for us to give us some experience on that golf course.”
Edmister’s second round score of 72 (E) was the best recorded by a Bearcat during the tournament. Sophomore Josh Holling also impressed in the second round, matching Edmister’s score of 72. He proceeded to shoot a 75 on the final day of play, earning him a 24th-place finish.
Senior David Cellura finished 38th after posting scores of 77, 78 and 76. Sophomore Jack Sedgewick tallied a final round score of 77 en route to a 39th-place finish, while freshman Jesse Perkins turned in a final round scorecard of 80 to place 41st.
Looking back on the past few months, Herceg said he is happy with the way the fall season played out for his team. Four top-five finishes for the Bearcats were highlighted by a first-place finish at the Cornell Fall Invitational in September. Experience and some success should translate into momentum for Binghamton heading into the spring season.
“We won the Cornell event, which was definitely a goal of ours again,” Herceg said. “I would have definitely liked to have won our home event. But overall, it was a good fall season, I would say. We definitely learned some things going into our spring season that we could work on and benefit from so we can have a stronger spring.”