Even though rough weather ended the weekend early for golfers at the Lafayette Invitational, Colgate had its best weekend (albeit an abbreviated one) of the spring campaign. The Raiders finished 12th overall in the field of 24 and junior Ricky Hayes posted a three-over round of 75 to finish in a tie with a handful of golfers for the fourth-best score of the day. Colgate’s overall round of 324, which was 36-over par, was good enough for its first finish in the top half of a field this season.

Including Hayes’ strong outing, the Raiders had four golfers finish in the top 100 of 124 finishers, including sophomore Montek Mayal’s career best 39th overall finish. Senior captain Sam Gersten came in at 69th, followed by sophomore Keaton Cross (82nd) and first-year Matt Salmon (113th).

Four Patriot League members participated at Lafayette. Colgate’s scores placed it behind both Lehigh and Bucknell but ahead of each of the host’s teams. Lehigh had the best score of the short tournament, posting a +12 score for the day. Bucknell came in second place at +19. The two Patriot League teams each had one of the two golfers who finished below par. Once again, scores were elevated for the tournament. All but six of the schools finished with rounds of at least 30 strokes above par. St. Francis, the last place team, finished at 107 above par. That score was forty strokes worse St. Peter’s, which finished in 23rd place.

In each of the tournaments that Colgate has participated in this season, defending Patriot League Champions Bucknell has battled with Lehigh and Navy for the best scores of a conference participant. In each of the three matches, Colgate has handily defeated Lafayette. Coming into the season, the Raiders were picked to finish fifth overall in the Patriot League, behind Bucknell, Army, Navy and Lehigh. In order to make a move and pass one of those teams in the upcoming Patriot League Championship, Colgate is going to have to improve over the last few weeks. Hopefully, the weather will be better this weekend when Army hosts the Patriot League Championship.