Women's Golf Hosts Bucknell Invitational to Tee Off 2024-25 Season

Friday, September 6

Lewisburg, Pa. (Bucknell GC)

All Day

Bucknell University

Bucknell Invitational

Women's Golf Hosts Bucknell Invitational to Tee Off 2024-25 Season

9/5/2024 1:35:00 PM | Women's Golf

Setting The Scene
What: 2024 Bucknell Invitational
When: Friday-Sunday, Sept. 6-8; tee times starting at 8:30 a.m.
Where: Par-70, 5901-yard Bucknell Golf Club, Lewisburg, Pa.
The Field: 14 teams (Bucknell, UAlbany, Bryant, Duquesne, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, Le Moyne, Long Island, Penn, Saint Francis, Saint Joseph's, Towson, Wagner)

LIVE SCORING

About the Bison

The Bucknell women's golf team makes its 2024-25 debut at its annual home invitational this weekend. The three-day event starts on Friday with 8:30 a.m. tee times.
Bucknell will be paired with Penn and Towson in the opening round, and the Bison will have three sophomores, a junior, and a freshman in the starting lineup. Sophomore Katherine Vice earned the No. 1 spot in preseason qualifying, and she will be backed up by classmates Lila Smith and Nicole Yun. Freshman Sophia Bardunias makes her Bucknell debut, and junior Paige Richter is back after earning All-Patriot League honors in each of her first two seasons.
Tara Thomas is the lone senior on the team, and she will be playing as an individual this week along with junior Erin Drahnak and freshman Katrina von Behren. The indie trio will start on the 10th hole, with tee times starting at 10 a.m.
Richter led the Bison with a 77.7 scoring average in 2023-24. She posted four top-10 finishes, including a seventh-place showing at the Patriot League Championship and a third-place effort at the SMSU Spring Classic in Arizona.
Yun (79.4), Smith (79.5), and Vice (80.0) also return after posting 80-or-better averages as rookies last season.

The Bison at the Bucknell Invitational

The Bison have won this event six times: 2006, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2021 (spring), and 2022.
Bucknell was the runner-up a year ago, finishing eight shots behind Boston University and just ahead of Navy and Lehigh as Patriot League teams swept the top four places. The highlight of the weekend was Lila Smith's school-record 68 in the second round, which was just her second career round. Smith finished in sixth place with a 223 total for 54 holes.
As a team, Bucknell set 18, 36, and 54-hole scoring records after posting rounds of 292-299-305.
Led by medalist Tara Thomas, Bucknell ran away with the 2022 title. The Bison shot 306-296-303. Second-place Mount St. Mary's finished 15 shots back. Thomas shot 77-69-70 to win the individual title by nine shots. She fired the third 69 in team history and also set the 54-hole scoring record (216). Her record-setting weekend was capped by a Sunday hole-in-one at No. 16, and she played the last 36 holes in 1-under par. Thomas also became the first Bison ever to post two rounds of 70 or better in the same tournament.
Bucknell has had seven medalists at its home event. Prior to Thomas two seasons ago, the most recent was Casey Morrow in the spring of 2021. Other individual champions are Lindsay Dodovich (2016), Katie Jurenovich (2010), Teri Schlang (2006), Jess Hetrich (2002), and Hilary Mainka (1999).

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