HAVRE, Mont. – The Montana Tech men's golf team opened the Frontier Conference season with a second place finish at the MSU-Northern Invitational with a second place finish behind Rocky Mountain who finished in the top spot of the first event of the season at Marias Valley Golf Course. 

All the teams struggled on the second day. The Orediggers shot a 309 for the final round finishing with a 910 (+46) for the tournament. The Battlin' Bears shot a 303 in their final round with a winning score of 891 (+27). Carroll College was more than a 100 strokes behind Tech finishing third with a 1020 (+156). 

"The course played pretty tough today with some challenging pins," said head coach Sean Ryan. "The team just didn't seem to get anything to drop and we fell behind the eight-ball from the start."

Matt Hobbs took the top spot for the Orediggers shooting a 78 on the final round and moving up one spot after day one to T3 with a final score of 228 (+12).

"Matt's third place finish was nice to see and I know he wishes he didn't make some big number or it could've been a lot closer."

Jhett Braley dropped from second place after the first two rounds finishing in T6 shooting an 83 on the final round. Braley finished with a final score of 228 (+12). 

"Joe Opitz played a great round today and figured some things out and was able to score well and move up the leaderboard."

Freshman Joe Opitz made the most gain on day two with a 74 finishing in 11th place with a combined score of 234 (+18). Gabe Witham also jumped up on the leaderboard finishing with a 234 (+18) and a 12th place finish. JR Small, Jace Rhodes, and Nick Pasquarello all finished in T13 with a 235 (+19). 

"We've got to put in some work and get some things figured out going into next week in Helena where I think we have a great opportunity to play well and shoot some low numbers."

The Orediggers are in Helena next week playing at Bill Roberts Golf Course at the Carroll College Invite.