The Binghamton golf team finished 11th overall at the Alex Lagowitz Invitational over the weekend in Hamilton, New York. After playing three rounds over a two-day span, the Bearcats finished with a total score of 905/41 over par in their first tournament of the 2023 fall season.

“I thought we would have finished a little bit higher up on the leaderboard and was hoping for a stronger finish in round three,” said Binghamton head coach Bernie Herceg. “We were going to our fourth round on that golf course. I thought we’d come under closer to 295 as a team but it didn’t happen.”

At the end of day one of competition, BU was tied for ninth place with a total score of 598. Fifth-year Evan Sitts and sophomore Brandon Conner spearheaded the Bearcats’ offense, each finishing the first day with a score of three over par. This placed them in a tie for 18th going into the second day. Junior Ryan Millevoi sat in a tie for 53rd with a score of 10 over par. Not far behind was sophomores Harrison Blech and Sean Shen along with freshman Jackson Vesper, who found themselves in a tie for 57th, with each scoring 11 over par.

“[Sitts], our captain, [played] real consistent and solid for us,” Herceg said. “He had some bad breaks on his first round and then round two he just played superb, not too many mistakes, putted very well and that was a great round … overall good performance for [Sitts].”

On day two, Sitts and Conner each saw a slide down in the standings. Despite this, Sitts was still the top finisher for the Bearcats, earning a score of 76 in the final round on day two and finishing tied for 24th place with a score of 7 over par over the entire weekend. Conner, despite dropping to 27th place on day two, had a solid showing, shooting 78 in the third round with an overall score of 9 over par for the whole tournament.

“[Conner is] just a consistent player,” Herceg said. “He had one or two loose swings that elevated his score. But overall, [Conner] knows his game well, he knows what he needs to work on and he’s going to be there for us for the whole season.”

Millevoi climbed five spots in the standings on day two. The Bearcat finished with 230 strokes over the weekend, resulting in a 14-over par score and earning him a tied-for 48th place finish. Shen finished with 232 strokes with a score of 16 over par, securing a tied-for 59th-place finish. Vesper, in his first competition as a Bearcat, finished tied for 62nd place, with an overall score of 17 over par. Closing out the squad was Blech, who finished tied for 70th after shooting 11 over par in round three.

“[Vesper] so far is a great fit for the team,” Herceg said. “It’s great to have him in the lineup just to get him more and more experienced going forward to keep improving in our program … he definitely has a lot of talent, well-rounded game and just learning a little bit because he’s from Texas.”

At the end of three rounds, the Bearcats’ combined score was 41 over par, resulting in an 11th-place finish overall. Yale took home the title with a total score of 853/11 under par, with five of its golfers finishing in the top 20.

“There were some positives,” Herceg said. “Overall, it’s good to see other competition and see where we’re at as a team, so we know what we need to work on … definitely get our game into better shape moving forward from how we competed.”

Binghamton will return to action next week at the Cornell Fall Invitational, which will begin on Sunday, Sept. 10, and end on Monday, Sept. 11. Tee times are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. at the Watchung Valley Golf Club in Watchung, New Jersey.