GORHAM, Maine –Saint Joseph's College topped the nine-team field with a 607 (301-306) card en route to claiming the first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Golf Championship in program history at the Gorham Country Club over the weekend.
Trailing University of Southern Maine by one stroke after the first 18 holes on Saturday, Saint Joseph's tied for the lowest score (306) on Sunday to surpass the Huskies and Rhode Island College for the coveted conference championship and subsequent automatic berth into the NCAA DIII Tournament, which will be played at the Mission Inn Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida May 16 – 19, 2017. http://www.missioninnresort.com
Rhode Island College, winners of the last five GNAC titles, finished second with a 610 (305-315) card and Southern Maine also recorded a 610 (300-310) score, but the Anchormen earned the runner-up finish by way of the fifth golfer tiebreaker rule.
Worcester State University (4th, 622), Johnson & Wales University (5th, 629), UMass.-Dartmouth (6th, 633), Emmanuel College (7th, 643), Suffolk University (8th, 646), and Albertus Magnus College (9th, 706) rounded out the list of competing institutions.
MONKS SCORECARD:
- Senior Michael Caron (Gorham, Maine) finished in a tie for second with a 148 (73-75) card
- Sophomores Cam Letourneau (Hebron, Maine) and Adam Hachey (Winthrop, Maine) finished in a tie for fourth with 150 scores
- Junior Brandon Labrecque (Gorham, Maine) cut three shots off his opening-18 effort and was tied for 26th with a 161 (82-79) card
- Sophomore Adam Batchelder (Portland, Maine/Cheverus) shaved eight strokes off his day one score and finished tied for 28th with a 162 (85-77) effort
NOTEWORTHY:
- With top-five finishes, Caron, Letourneau and Hachey earned All-Conference honors; previously, the Monks had never seen more than one player collect All-GNAC accolades in the same season
- For Labrecque, the 161 score is his best in 12 career 36-hole events
- The conference championship is just the second in the history of the SJC Golf program – the other title came in 1990, when Head Coach Jamie Smyth '92 helped the Monks earn an NAIA New England Championship
- Prior to this weekend, the Monks' top GNAC Championship finish was fourth (2006 & 2007) and best team card was 632 (2011 & 2014)
- Last season, Saint Joseph's finished fifth with a 664 (330-334) score in the GNAC Championship, which was held at Allendale Country Club (R.I.)
- Several alumni were in attendance, as Ebb Walton '13, Kevin Richardson '14 – a three-time All-GNAC performer - and Jason Riley '16 all returned to witness their program make history
ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM:
- Mike Jezierski – Worcester State – 146 (74-72) Medalist
- Michael Caron – Saint Joseph's – 148 (73-75)
- Steven Ferraro – Worcester State – 148 (75-73)
- Cam Letourneau – Saint Joseph's – 150 (72-78)
- Adam Hachey – Saint Joseph's – 150 (74-76)
NEXT!
Saint Joseph's concludes the 2016 fall season with an appearance in the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association (NEIGA) Championship at The Captains Golf Course in Brewster, Massachusetts. The two-day event begins on Sunday, October 23rd.
#GOMONKS
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
