Banke Bounces Back to Lead Cats at Fighting Illini Invite

OLYMPIA FIELDS, ILL. – No. 19 Arizona Men's Golf again battled a challenging course on day two of the Fighting Illini Invitational that saw only two teams from the entire field break par on Saturday. Graduate senior Christian Banke shaved four strokes off his opening round to post the lowest score of the day for Arizona at 1-over. The Wildcats sit in 14th at 29-over par after the first two rounds of action.

"Today was another tough day on the course for us, and we were not able to make the improvements we had hoped for after our opening round," said head coach Jim Anderson. "We have a resilient group, and I believe we will make the proper adjustments. I look forward to seeing how our guys respond on Sunday."

Banke is Arizona's top player on the player leaderboards in 37th place at 6-over for the tournament with junior Chase Sienkiewicz one stroke behind him in a tie for 43rd place.

The Wildcats have later tee times assigned to them for Sunday's third and final round with Chaz Aurilia being the first Cat off the tee at 6:30 a.m. (MST) at Olympia Fields Country Club.