A long sought-after victory was locked up by Moose Jaw's Leighton Bearchell on Tuesday.

The Minot State University senior fired a final-round 73 to walk away as the medallist at the JP Watkins Invitational at the Jewel Golf Club in Lake City, Minnesota.

"It's awesome, honestly," said Bearchell over the phone after his round. "It's been a long time coming, this is something that I wanted to do since I started playing collegiate golf when I went down to Texas, so it's definitely been a long road, but it feels good to get a win."

The Beavers' team came in second with a two-day total of 594, finishing two strokes behind Washburn University.

Bearchell opened with a two-under 69 in the first round on Monday and he was able to continue his strong play into the second round on Tuesday to collect a three-stroke victory while playing as an individual.

"(Monday) was big for me, it was the first time that I really put together a solid tournament round in a long time, so it was good for my confidence to know that I can do it, it was certainly a big part of what went down today," said Bearchell.

In his third season with the Beavers, Bearchell wasn't exactly on fire going into this week's tournament, but he was able to get some momentum early on.

"Golf is a strange game, I played in a tournament in Grand Forks last weekend and shot 85-77, so it's a quite turnaround to shoot a 69-73 here, but honestly, I've been hitting the ball really for most of the summer and for the fall now too, everything finally clicked this week for me to post some good scores," said Bearchell.

This is the third straight year that Bearchell has played in the JP Watkins Invitational, so he felt comfortable on the course, which helped him post some low scores over the two rounds.

"I've played the golf course enough to know where you need to hit it, the lines to take off the tee and I just felt really comfortable out there," said Bearchell.

With two tournaments to go in the fall season for the Beavers, Bearchell said he wants to turn this week's success into a solid finish to the year, "Just a couple of events left, but if the team plays well, we'll have a good chance at both those tournaments," he said.

Bearchell and the Beavers will be in Lemont, Illinois on Oct. 1-2 for the Cog Hill Invitational at the Cog Hill Golf Course.