SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Longwood men's golf battled their way to a top six finish after one round at the Wofford Invitational.
 
Hunter Swidzinski finished in the top 10, and David Lafreniere carded a top 20 round to lead the Lancers on the par 71 course at the Country Club of Spartanburg.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
The Lancers opened with a slow start, but Swidzinski and Lafreniere helped the team rally and shake it off. The field features two teams in the top fifty in the University of South Florida (No. 49), who is tied for second, and USC Aiken (No. 19 in Division II), and it also has four other Big South schools.
 
Longwood is only two strokes back of Radford in fifth, and the team is seven shots back of Winthrop, who is tied for second. The Lancers are six shots back from USC Aiken as well.
 
The Lancers are three shots ahead of High Point in ninth and 11 shots in front of USC Upstate in 11^th.
 
Swidzinski was the top finisher for Longwood, and he was at his best on the back nine, which he played at two-under. He finished with a 69 while carding five birdies on the day to finish the afternoon tied for 10^th.
 
Lafreniere, meanwhile, carded a trio of birdies and had nothing worse than a bogey to finish the day one-under. He played his front nine holes at one-under while recording a 70 on the round. The junior is tied for 18^th.
 
Cameron Hardison posted a one-over 72 to close the round tied for 33^rd. He too was at his best to close the round. Three of his four birdies came in the final 10 holes, and he played the back nine at one-under.
 
Matthew Lyons tallied a 75 (+4) to tie for 62^nd, and Matthew Hartley is tied for 75^th.
 
WHAT THEY SAID:
 
"Today was a grind," said Longwood Head Coach Kevin Fillman. "Most of us did not have our best stuff, but enough of us showed some fight to keep us in the mix. Spartanburg is a tough test from bad spots, and we seemed to find a lot of them today. I think the two big takeaways from the round are: one, nobody was going to win the tournament today, and, two, we have a lot of things we can correct for tomorrow's round that will help move us back into contention."
 
FULL RESULTS:
 
1. Western Carolina: 276 (-8)
T2. USF: 279 (-5)
T2. Winthrop: 279 (-5)
4. #19 USC Aiken: 280 (-4)
5. Radford: 284 (E)
6. Longwood: 286 (+2)
T7. Mercer: 287 (+3)
T7. Wofford: 287 (+3)
9. High Point: 289 (+5)
10. Samford: 291 (+7)
11. USC Upstate: 297 (+13)
T12. Providence: 299 (+15)
T12. Francis Marion: 299 (+15)
 
T10. Hunter Swidzinski: 69 (-2)
T18. David Lafreniere: 70 (-1)
T33. Cameron Hardison: 72 (+1)
T62. Matthew Lyons: 75 (+4)
T75. Matthew Hartley: 77 (+6)
 
UP NEXT:
 
The Lancers play the second of three rounds tomorrow morning. Live stats are available on Scoreboard by Clippd.

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