The Iowa State men’s golf team battled steady rainfall and slow play en route to earning a tie for second place at the Kansas Invitational on Tuesday.

Jon Levy, one of the team’s top swingers, said he found the slow play especially challenging.

“We were on the course 11 hours the first day,” he said.

He also added that because of the snail-like pace, “we weren’t sure if we could get the whole 54 holes in.”

The conditions also prompted golfer Matt Lewis to label the meet an “endurance test.”

“The course played a lot longer. Changing gloves and keeping the clubs clean and dry were important. We handled the weather pretty well,” he said.

Despite ISU’s competitive, consistent golf throughout the tournament, host school Kansas took the team title shooting a sizzling 859 over 54 holes.

Levy said, “Kansas always plays well on their home course. It’s tough to beat Kansas on their home turf.”

The Cyclones matched the Cornhuskers with a score of 876 for second place.

Baylor locked up fourth with 890 and intrastate rival Drake finished seventh with 893.

Both Levy and Lewis were happy with the team’s performance.

“It was a solid tournament. The whole team played well,” Levy said.

Lewis agreed. “Everyone was contributing,” he said.

The course featured difficult par-3s scattered throughout the course. Lewis said these holes turned out to be important factors which ended up making or breaking the round.

“The par-3s were a challenge —a real test of golf. They posed the greatest threat for all teams,” he said.

Individually, the cardinal and gold was again led by Lewis with his solid 54-hole score of 217. His score tied him for fifth individually out of a field of 92 golfers.

Cyclones Jon Levy and Jon Brackmann finished in a tie for 13th, Aaron Patton finished tied for 21st and Scott Hart ended in a tie for 33rd.

Kansas golfer Ryan Vermeer was the tournament medalist with a score of 211.

The ISU golfers are looking forward to competing the D.A. Weibring Invitational being held in Normal, Ill., September 28-29 on Illinois State’s home course.

Lewis is planning for a successful meet for the team.

“We’ll shoot really low and go in to win,” Lewis said.

Levy said the team is steadily improving, and now is the time to take the first team title.

“We keep getting better. We shouldn’t be happy with anything but a win,” he said.