April 13, 2008

Results

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- In eighth place and 14 shots behind at the start of the day, the Bucknell men's golf team shot a 3-over-par 291 and rallied to win the Lafayette Invitational on Sunday afternoon at Center Valley Golf Club.

Freshman Ben Mattingly (Fishers, Ind./Park Tudor) shot a 1-under 71 to lead the Bison, and Stuart Lindgren (Richfield, Minn./Richfield) and Andrew Cohen (Mamaroneck, N.Y./Mamaroneck) both shot 73. Keita Aoki (Tokyo, Japan/St. Mary's International) carded a 74, while the solid 76 from Rahul Desai (Avon, Conn./Kingswood-Oxford) was not needed.

Lindgren's 73 followed Saturday's even-par round, and he finished in a tie for third place individually at 145. Matt Magalsky of Saint Francis (Pa.) shot 72-71 to win by one shot over Delaware's Tommy Ellison and by two over Lindgren and Kevin Farrell of Mount St. Mary's.

Bucknell's turnaround was epitomized by Mattingly and Cohen, both of whom shot in the 80s in the first round, when the Bison posted a 303 and seemingly fell out of contention. The young duo chopped a combined 20 strokes off their opening-round scores.

Aoki (T-11th) and Desai (20th) both finished in the top 20.

Bucknell's 291 team score was the best in the field by seven shots, and it was 17 better than first-round leader Drexel. The Dragons opened with a 289 but shot 308 on Sunday to finish second, three shots behind the Bison.

Delaware was third at 599, followed by Mount St. Mary's (606), Monmouth (609), and Saint Francis (610). Also in the 25-team field were Patriot League rivals Colgate (618, T-8th), Lafayette (620, T-10th) and Lehigh (621, T-12th).

The victory was Bucknell's second of 2007-08. It also won the Bucknell Invitational back in September. It was the program's 10th tournament title since the start of the 2003-04 season.

The Bison will be back on the course next weekend at the Navy Invitational, with the Patriot League Championship looming in two weeks.