As the Cornell Invitational drew to an end, a mass of red shirts patiently awaited the results of their hard work over the past two days. Cornell head coach Matt Baughan announced the winners at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course late yesterday.
Fifteen teams fought hard in an attempt to capture the title of the 54-hole event. Through the cold, gloomy Ithaca weather, they steadfastly played a 36-hole round on Saturday followed by an 18-hole round yesterday. Though the team as a whole did not obtain the coveted glass trophy, junior Bret Perry stood out from the rest as he placed second individually at the Invitational, only one stroke shy of the score posted by Rider University’s Tyler Brewington. The Red’s A team finished in 3rd place with a score of +28, falling behind Rider University, with +22, and St. Bonaventure University, with +24. The B team, however, did not fare as well as it had planned, and unfortunately finished last.
Junior Robbie Fritz was pleased with the results of the team and claimed that, in regards to Bret’s performance this weekend, he was “happy to see him do well.”
[img_assist|nid=18701|title=Swinging high|desc=Junior Robbie Fritz (pictured) helped the Reds A team to a third-place finish at the Cornell Invitational this weekend.|link=popup|align=left|width=65|height=100]
“It’s nice when the highest score you take is a 75,” Fritz said.
With a much better performance in comparison to last year’s Invitational, the A team showed improvement off its previous 8th place ranking, as well as its 7th and 5th place rankings earlier this season at St. Bonaventure and Colgate, respectively.
“We redeemed ourselves this year,” Perry said.
After last year’s winner, St. Joseph’s, did not compete at Cornell this weekend, all teams were hoping to steal first place and claim themselves the tournament’s big winner.
“The front nine played really tough for all three rounds,” said Fritz. “You had to be conscientious at putting on the greens.”
Coach Baughan was unable to provide comment on the team’s performance, but it was evident by the high-fives and smiles that there was a feeling of accomplishment present.
After the first day of play on Saturday, Perry was two strokes under, behind Hofstra’s Alex Lowenthal. Perry was able to keep up his aggressive game as Lowenthal had fallen to the 5th place position. Perry finished even with a score of 216 and junior Chad Bernstein joined him as the only two Cornellians in the top-15 by the end of the tournament.
This year’s A squad consisted of Berstein, Fritz, and Perry who were joined by another junior, Austin Lord, as well as freshman Rob Cronheim. The five of them made up a solid team finishing with three rounds under 300 and a final overall score of 892. Even with their success, unfortunately, the group was still unable to grab the title this year.
With the Penn Invitational coming up in mid-October, the team prepares for another rigorous competition. This will be the first time anyone on the team has played at Penn and Fritz is excited to contend against other Ivy League teams.
Overall, Cornell was able to overcome the difficulties of the course and give Rider some steady competition. As the team continues to improve, Robbie Fritz put it best: “the future looks promising.”
