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The Bearcats shot a 54-hole total of 868 en route to a 13-shot runaway victory out of 14 schools at the Cornell Invitational at Robert Trent Jones Golf Course on Sept. 26. Binghamton managed a final round mark of 1-under (287), the program’s third-lowest 18-hole round of all-time, to earn its fifth team title at the Cornell Invitational.

Senior Jake Katz registered rounds of 70-72-69, finishing at 211 (5-under) to capture the individual title out of 81 players by a slim margin ahead of teammates Trevor Fiedler and Andrew Marler, who finished at 213 (3-under) and 216 (even-par), respectively. With the victory, Katz has tallied seven straight top-10 performances, dating back to the Hal Sutton Intercollegiate in the spring of 2010.

“He’s out there doing his best to have a good finish and he was pretty excited to pull it off,” head coach Bernie Herceg said of Katz’s top finish. “This is one that he won outright. He proved how well he’s capable of playing and it was a strong showing for him. He has the chance to do it again over the next three weeks. He’s hitting the ball so well and he’s scoring better.”

Katz’s other medalist performances came during the 2008-09 campaign when he garnered the top spot out of 23 with an even-par effort at the Cornell Tri-Match. In the spring season of 2009, Katz earned a share of first out of 53 at the New England Championship.

“I’m really excited to see how good we’re going to be this year because the rest of the team is playing so well,” Herceg said. “Our team is stronger and more competitive. It’s a good problem to have with how good our players are. We had to throw away a 74 today and it has been a long time since we had to do that.”

Fiedler, whose performance was only counted in the individual portion of the event, posted three strong rounds of 72-68-73 for runner-up honors. Fiedler had an opportunity to win the individual title outright after making the turn at 4-under, but took a triple-bogey on a par-5 down the stretch. His second-round score of 4-under was the lowest 18-hole round by any player in the event.

Sophomore David Cellura and junior Mike Surdey narrowly missed top-10 finishes. Cellura carded rounds of 76-72-73 while Surdey managed 74-73-74 for shares of 11th place.