The Raiders hosted the Colgate Invitational this past weekend at the beautiful Seven Oaks Golf Course inviting 14 teams to Hamilton to take on the course. After 54 grueling holes over two days, the Raiders showed some of the same prowess they did last year, with sophomore Ryan Allison taking the overall title and the Raiders finishing second overall as a team. Fellow Patriot-League opponent Army Black Knights took home the trophy on the weekend. 

In what turned out to be a strong performance from the start of the weekend through the final hole, Allison stepped up to the first tee Sunday with a one stroke lead, a lead he held onto over the runner-up from Army Dean Sakata. His 71 on Sunday marked the second best score on the course for the weekend while his 70 the previous round tied for the best. Overall, the sophomore shot -2 for the weekend, just the second score in the red in Colgate history. Jesse Smith, class of 2002 and 2013 US Open Qualifier,

recorded the other one.

Allison struggled early on Sunday,

bogeying his first two holes, but quickly recovered from there. After recovering for a solid first nine, he birdied the first three holes on the back nine to get to -1 on the round and finished there. His seven-foot putt on the 18th green solidified

the victory. 

In addition to Allison’s performance, the Raiders got a top-five finish from junior Zenon Bishop, who started the weekend off on the wrong foot with a 78 but quickly recovered and shot rounds of 73 and 72 to close out the weekend.

Finishing just behind Bishop were sophomores Ian Lynch and Chris Wilson, who finished tied for ninth and 13th respectively. Lynch started out slow but finished with a strong final round of 71 while Wilson’s 73 in the first round was his high for

the weekend. 

Despite all the strong performances from the Raiders, the Army Black Knights were a cut above on the tournament, with all four golfers finishing in the top 5 and turning in a team score of +9 for the tournament. The Raiders +21, however, was also a cut above the rest with the next finisher coming

in at +55.

After finishing ninth in last year’s Colgate Invitational, their second place finish marks a huge improvement and one they look to build off as they enter their fall season. The Raiders will now hit the road this weekend for the Bucknell Invitational as they hope to improve on their third place finish in Lewisburg last year. From there, the Raiders will finish the fall season with four more tournaments in the fall before their busy spring

season begins.