The NC State men’s golf team split second place with No. 13 Notre Dame at the Stitch Intercollegiate at Lonnie Poole Golf Course April 8-9. The Duke Blue Devils took first place for the competition.

The Pack finished with a score of 3-under par which was mirrored by its top two finishers, junior Max Steinlechner and graduate student Easton Paxton. Steinlechner posted a pair of 70s in the two rounds before dropping off a bit with a 73 in the final round. Paxton showed incredible consistency in his own 3-under par performance, putting up a trio of 71s on the scorecard.

The Wolfpack had a rough start as a team in the first round, registering a score of 292. However, NC State managed to claw back up the standings with the help of some resurgence performances by junior Carter Graf and sophomore Ethan Choi in the ensuing rounds. Graf and Choi finished round one at 4-over par and 5-over par, respectively, but the two pulled themselves together to improve significantly down the stretch.

Graf’s turnaround came sooner as he shot par in round two before finishing round three with a score of 1-over par. Choi registered another 5-over par showing in round two, but made up a ton of ground in the final round with a 4-under par.

Rounding out the scorecard for the Pack was junior Spencer Oxendine, who had a disappointing finish of 12-over for the competition. Oxendine brought his first-round score of 3-over par down by one, hinting at a resurgence like Graf and Choi, but a 7-over par score in the third round soured his performance.

Steinlechner and Paxton tied for second place in the individual standings while Graf and Choi placed tied for 19th and tied for 24th, respectively. Oxendine ended up tying for 51st.

The Wolfpack will get another shot at beating Duke at the I-40 Cup on April 15. The competition will be held at the Carolina Country Club in Raleigh.