The WSU men’s golf team finished in second place at the Oregon State Invitational on Monday and Tuesday hosted at the Trysting Tree Golf Course in Corvallis, Oregon.

It was a great showing by the Cougars, shooting 862 as a team, landing in second place out of the 15-team lineup. The Cougs fell to Kansas State, who placed in first, with an impressive team score of 849. Nonetheless, second place is certainly nothing to frown about.

As a matter of fact, the Cougs should count their stars, as the third-place team, Tarleton State, hot on their tails, were only three points behind them.

Spectators saw the same lineup for the Cougs becoming familiar with the names of Pono Yanagi, Preston Bebich, Jaden Cantafio, Peter Jung and Sam Renner.

Your Cougar team was led by Cantafio, shooting a 214 and scoring an individual player ranking of tenth.

His teammates Bebich and Renner, although only shooting three points behind Cantafio both earned an individual player ranking of 17th shooting twin scores of 217.

Yanagi shot just one point behind the duo, with 218, finishing in 23rd place. Jung brought up the rear with his score of 225 earning him a 51st place ranking.

Cantafio’s teamates followed close behind showing how closely competitive these tournaments can get.

Last season, the Cougars finished fifth at the Oregon State Invitational. After this year’s performance there is no doubt that it feels better to head to the same course and see improvement.

Fellow PAC-12 teams Utah and host Oregon State placed fifth and sixth respectively.

In addition, our neighbor on the Palouse was in attendance, as the Vandals of University of Idaho placed 12th.

The Cougars saw drastic improvement from a lackluster performance at the Mark Simpson-Colorado Invitational, where the Cougars finished 12th of 15. Knock on wood, it is safe to say the team is back and moving in the right direction.

Next week, the Cougars will fly down to Stockton, California to compete in the Visit Stockton Invitational, played at the Stockton Country Club. The invitational will be a three day event, from Oct. 20-22.

Stockton bears great memories for the Cougars as the team came in first place there last year. No doubt they will try to keep the association with the California town sweet in addition to keeping this week’s momentum strong into the rest of the season.