Pike ’10 leads Bison golfers in dominant victory at Bucknell Invitational
By Wes Trowbridge
Sports Editor
Jeff Pike ’10 led the men’s golf team to an emphatic 14-stroke victory in the Bucknell Invitational at Bucknell Country Club last weekend. Pike won his first career individual title, firing rounds of 67 and 69 in the rain-shortened tournament.
Pike’s four under par performance was a career best as the Orange and Blue won their fall invitational for the second straight year and fourth time in the last six years. Pike’s first round score of 67 also tied for the fifth best round in program history.
“Nobody spends more time working on his game than Pike, he really deserved a win,” team captain Brian Poe ’09 said.
Brian Bartow’s ’10 rounds of 74 and 69 earned him a tie for third place individually, another career best.
Rounding out an excellent two days for the trio of juniors was Andrew Cohen’s ’10 rounds of 73 and 74, placing him in a tie for 10th.
Poe carded rounds of 72 and 76 to tie for 16th place. His 72 was the team’s second lowest score of the first round, which was delayed due to rain after nine holes, and finished on Saturday morning. The tournament was originally scheduled to be a 54-hole event, but was reduced to 36, with 27 played Saturday.
Andrew Wallisch ’11 rounded out the winning team, finishing in a tie for 24th with rounds of 77 and 74.
The University also fielded a team of mostly underclassmen, which placed eighth out of the 12 teams competing. Parker Phillips ’11 led the squad, and tied for 10th individually, recording scores of 77 and 70. Ben Mattingly ’11 and Ryan Schneiter ’10 also played well on their home turf, shooting rounds of 74-76 and 78-76 respectively.
Patrick Morsches ’12 shot 79-78 and William Bachman ’12 carded scores of 81 and 84 in the first tournaments of their collegiate career.
After finishing second to Navy in the Patriot League Championship last season, head coach Jim Cotner’s team looks to return to the form that won the team consecutive Patriot League titles in 2006 and 2007.
“We have a lot of quality players returning from last year’s team and we are ready to retake the top position in the Patriot League this year,” Poe said.
The Orange and Blue bested three Patriot League foes—Colgate, Lafayette and Lehigh—by a combined 78 strokes this weekend.
The team will compete in the Colgate Invitational at Seven Oaks Golf Club in Hamilton, N.Y., this weekend. The Bison finished three strokes behind the tournament host Raiders in 2007.
