On September 17 and 18, the Colgate men’s golf team traveled to Lewisburg, Penn­sylvania to participate in the Bucknell Invita­tional. The Raiders finished in a tie for seventh place overall, but posted strong numbers across the board.

The team set school records for its 36-hole and 54-hole totals. Colgate got off to a blaz­ing start, and through two rounds had totaled 584 as a team. The squad fired a solid 296 in the final round of the weekend to finish with a record low total of 880 team strokes. The tally smashed the 10-year-old school record by 12 strokes.

The tournament was the team’s first of the season, after the previous weekend’s Colgate Invitational was canceled due to wet conditions.

“I think we all put a little extra pressure on ourselves this weekend to play well because in the past we have always had the opportu­nity to start the season off strong at our home tournament,” junior assistant captain Will Delano said.

Delano led the Raiders with a domi­nant performance, shooting the third lowest three-round total in school history and placing 11th overall. The team leader opened with a solid 72 in his first round, followed by a fantas­tic 69 in his second go-around. Delano capped the strong weekend with a respectable 75 in the third and final round.

Despite the strong performance, Delano isn’t getting too far ahead of himself.

“[This weekend] doesn’t change the way I am going to prepare for next week,” Delano said. “It does make me more confident know­ing that I played well in my first tournament of the year, so if anything it will make preparing this week less stressful.”

First-year Brian McCormick made an im­mediate impact on the squad, placing 28th overall in the tournament with a total score of 221 (75-69-77). The squad will prepare over the course of this week for the Cornell Invita­tional, to be held on September 24 and 25 in Ithaca, New York. The Raiders placed a dis­appointing 11th place in the tournament last season, so the team will be looking for a dra­matic improvement this year on the heels of its successful first weekend.

Contact Matt Flannery at [email protected].