APALACHIN, N.Y. – In its home event, the Binghamton golf team found itself tied for lead after the opening round of the Matthews Auto Collegiate Golf Invitational Sunday at The Links at Hiawatha Landing.
 
The Bearcats put together one of its strongest rounds in program history to put themselves at the top of the leaderboard. Binghamton shot 285/3-under par on the par 72 course. That is tied for the eighth-lowest team score relative to par in program history. That ties the team’s 281/3-under par in the final round of the 2015 Wildcat Invitational, which Binghamton won.
 
Propelling the Bearcats to their strong score was four of its starting five shooting even par or better. At the top of that group was Harrison Blech, who shot 70-2-under par to put himself in a tie for sixth. Right behind him is Brandon Conner’s 71/1-under par. Conner finished tied for second at the 2023 Matthews Auto Collegiate Golf Invitational after recording the lowest score through 36 holes relative to par in program history at 137/7-under par. His score in the first round of that event at 67/5-under par is also tied for the second-lowest round in Binghamton history.
 
Both Ryan Millevoi and Sean Shen are tied for 16th at 72/even-par. Millevoi, as well as fellow Bearcat Tynan Jones, put up an eagle on the par-5 12th hole to lower their scores by two strokes. Jones finished the first round tied for 38th at 75/3-over par.
 
Binghamton has previously won this competition twice in program history, with those victories taking place in 2014 and 2018. The win in 2018 is also the last time Binghamton has won an event at golf as a team. Both Justin Lane and Zak Ottman shared medalist honors at that event.
 
The Bearcats are tied for first with Laval, with Sacred Heart trailing both teams by one stroke and La Salle behind by two. La Salle’s Benjamin Battye leads the individual leaderboard at 67/5-under par.
 
The final round of the Matthews Auto Collegiate Golf Invitational begins on Monday at 9 a.m., with double tee times.