Story courtesy of Ball State Sports Information

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- The Ball State men's golf team opened its season in style with a wire-to-wire win at the Golfweek Conference Challenge.
 
Joey Ranieri's nearly flawless performance led the Cardinals to a 15-shot victory in a 16-team field that featured seven top-100 squads from a year ago. The sophomore from Zionsville went bogey-free again in Tuesday's final round on the way to a 2-under-par 70. He made just one bogey over 54 holes in the finest performance of his young career.
 
Ranieri tied for second place among 93 golfers at 7 under par over three rounds on the Donald Ross Course at Cedar Rapids Country Club. He shared the lead late Tuesday before Illinois State's David Perkins birdied three of his last four holes to win by three.
 
Keegan Bronnenberg gave the Cardinals two players in the top 10. The Muncie native closed with a 73 to tie for sixth at 4 under. His 14 birdies for the week were the second most of any player in the field.
 
Ball State also counted scores of 74 from Jack Cunningham and 76 from Yianni Kostouros in the final round. The Cardinals posted a team mark of 293, turning an 11-stroke lead at the beginning of the day into a 15-shot runaway. Among the teams BSU defeated were tournament host Iowa and defending champion Arkansas State.
 
The margin was the largest for BSU since the 2009 Cardinal Collegiate at Sultan's Run in Jasper, Indiana. That victory, also by 15 strokes, came in a weather-shortened, 36-hole event.
 
Ranieri was in red figures all three rounds for the week. Of the 15 rounds among the Ball State lineup, eight of them came in at even or better, highlighted by 68's from Ranieri in the first round and CJ Jones in the second.
 
The Cardinals will return to action next week at the Trinity Forest Invitational, kicking off a stretch that also features trips to Erin Hills and Crooked Stick.