MANHATTAN, Kan. – The North Dakota State men's golf team opened up the Kansas State Wildcat Invitational on Monday at Colbert Hills, sitting in second place in the 15-team field after the first two rounds.
 
The Bison shot back-to-back team rounds of 286 (-2) to end the first day in second at -4, six shots ahead of Grand Canyon. Host Kansas State leads the event at -25 after a -8 in the opening round and a -17 in round two.
 
Bison golfers Gavin Cronkhite and Nate Adams sit in a tie for 10^th overall after 36 holes at -2. Cronkhite opened up the day at even par before shooting a -2 round of 70 in round two. Cronkhite finished the day fourth overall in Birdies, ending the day with nine.
 
Adams was second on the day in birdies with 11. He carded back-to-back rounds of 71, ending the first round in ninth before dropping one spot in round two.
 
One shot back and in a tie for 12^th overall is NDSU sophomore Ian Simonich at -1. Simonich led all golfers with 29 pars on the day. He began the event with a +1 round of 73 before carding a -2 round of 70 in the afternoon. His second round was bogey free with birdies on the eighth, his first hole of the round, and hole 16.
 
Nate Deziel scored for the Bison in the opening round after carding a -2 round of 70. His opening round featured a team-high six birdies. However, Deziel had a +4 round of 76 in the afternoon, falling into a tie for 23^rd.
 
Brock Winter would score for the Bison in round two with a +3 round of 75. Winter opened up with a 79 in round one and ended the day in a tie for 57^th overall in the 81-golfer field at +10.
 
The Bison will wrap the Wildcat Invitational on Tuesday with the third and final round. NDSU will tee off with Kansas State and Grand Canyon in the leader's groups on holes 1-3 at 8:30 a.m.