The Binghamton golf team continued its slow start to the season last weekend at the Wildcat Invitational, hosted by Villanova University. After a tough first day that placed the Bearcats tied for 11th, BU improved their score by three strokes the following day, moving them up two places on the leaderboard to a ninth-place finish out of 16 teams.

Binghamton’s scored a 294 in the second round, closely resembling its first round score of 297. The two-round total gave the Bearcats a plus-31 overall score for the weekend, with the final round being a three stroke improvement of plus-14 from the first day.

The top scorer for the Bearcats was senior D.J. Griffiths, who finished in a tie for 10th on the individual leaderboard. He shot a 144 over the course of the weekend, good for four-above-par. Griffiths was also responsible for the best individual round for Binghamton when he put up a 70 in the second round, the only even-par round of any Bearcat. He is averaging a career-best 73.7 strokes per game. Senior Justin Lane was the next top-scorer for the Bearcats, coming in 22nd.

“[Griffiths] had some nice birdies down the stretch to cap off a solid round,” said Binghamton head coach Bernie Herceg, per bubearcats.com. “[Lane] didn’t have his best stuff today but he battled and grinded well and helped the team.”

The Bearcats’ next tournament is the penultimate invitational of the season, with the Big Sky Championships taking place in the last weekend of April. Prior to the conference championships, they will take part in the Abarta Coca-Cola Invitational hosted by Lafayette College. The event will take place on Sunday, April 18 in Hellertown, Pennsylvania.