By Ajan Caneda

Contributing Writer

The men’s golf team ended its four-year winning streak with a fourth-place finish at last weekend’s Bison Invitational. Coming into Saturday in a tie for fifth, the Orange and Blue posted a final round total of 291.

Thirteen teams, including Patriot League rivals Lehigh, Lafayette and Colgate, competed with Longwood, who claimed the top spot nine strokes ahead of second-place finisher Army, who scored 866. Lafayette followed with a third-place 869.

Schyuler Stitzer ’14 had the highest individual score for the Bison, tying for eighth with 215.

“I think as a team everyone was frustrated to not win our home tournament that we have had great success at in the past. Longwood played great and deserved to win,” Stitzer said. “I think everyone felt like they missed out on a few shots out there. During the first two rounds, I had to work hard for the scores that I got. I felt that the third round gave me some nice momentum and opportunities to score.”

Thomas Walter ’14 and J.J. Szmadzinski ’13 tied with 219. Jon Hartman ’13 and William Bachman ’12 also cracked top-30 finishes with 220 (tied for 23rd) and 221 (tied for 28th) respectively.

“I was pretty satisfied with our performance since it was the first competition of the season. It was the strongest field of teams we have hosted in the past eight years. Our younger players played very well considering it was their first collegiate experience,” Head Coach Jim Cotner said. “The area that we need to improve on is consistency. We need to have all our players narrow the gap between their higher rounds and lower scores.”

Stitzer is optimistic for the next invitational at Cornell.

“Cornell is a good golf course; everyone is looking forward to playing next weekend and I’m hoping that the weather will be favorable,” Stitzer said.

The Bison travel to Ithaca tomorrow for the two-day invitational.