HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. – Saint Joseph's College closed out the first round of the 2017 NCAA DIII Championship in 41st place with a 335 score at the El Campeon Golf Course on the grounds of the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort on Tuesday.
Senior Michael Caron (Gorham, Maine) paced the Monks with a two-over 74 card - among 15 participants with the same score - and heads into the second round tied for 24th individually. Sophomore Adam Batchelder (Portland, Maine/Cheverus) and junior Brandon Labrecque (Gorham, Maine) both turned in an 86 card while sophomores Cameron Letourneau (Hebron, Maine) and Adam Hachey (Winthrop, Maine) both scored an 89 on the first day.
Caron's score is the second lowest among New England individuals, trailing only Husson University's Gavin Dugas, who put up a 72 card on Tuesday.
Play resumes tomorrow with the Monks teeing off at 8:20 AM on the 10th hole (shotgun start) of the Las Colinas Golf Course, the second of two 18-hole courses on the grounds of the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort.
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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.
NCAA RELEASE:
Top-Ranked Huntingdon Jumps Out to Early Lead at NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship
Huntingdon's Addison Lambeth Holds Individual Lead after 18 Holes
HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. - The top-ranked Huntingdon Hawks rode an outstanding 5-over-par 293 to the 18-hole lead Tuesday on Day 1 at the 2017 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship at Mission Inn Resort and Club. They were led by Addison Lambeth, who holds a 1-stroke lead in the race for the individual medal after carding five birdies on the signature El Campeon course Tuesday morning.
The Hawks hold a 3-stroke lead over a 3-way tie for second between Texas-Tyler, Rhodes and LaGrange, all of whom played on the Las Colinas course on the day and posted scores of 8-over 296. Christopher Newport posted a 9-over 297 on Las Colinas and finished the day in fifth place.
On the individual side, Christopher Newport's David Rabil sits tied with Cameron Willis of sixth-place Wittenberg for second place, with the two of them just a single stroke back of Lambeth. Both competitors birdied their final hole, the par-4 ninth on Las Colinas, pulling them to within a stroke.
Six golfers ended Tuesday tied for fourth, finishing the first 18 holes at 1-under, just two back of Lambeth. Logan Lanier and Osborn Theam of LaGrange, Chris Harris of Rhodes, Kyle Shealy of sixth-place Oglethorpe, Josh Hill of ninth-place Guilford and Brad Lankler of 23rd-place Franklin and Marshall comprised the 6-way tie.
Wittenberg and Oglethorpe finished Day 1 in a sixth-place tie at 10-over 298, with Washington and Lee, Greensboro and Guilford tying for eighth at 12-over 300.
A 7-way tie for 10th rounded out the individual top 10, with Stephen Shepherd of Huntingdon, Sean Sculley of 27th-place Penn State-Behrend, Jon Hughes of 14th-place Webster, Gavin Dugas of 30th-place Husson, Jarrod Brown of 14th-place Mary Hardin-Baylor, Craig Decato of 11th-place Methodist and Alex Wrenn of 11th-place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps comprising the tie.
The 42 teams and five individual competitors will return to Mission Inn Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m., with the teams that played El Campeon on Tuesday flipping to Las Colinas and vice versa. After Wednesday's second round, the field will be cut to the top 18 teams and the top six individuals not on those teams for the final two rounds Thursday and Friday.
Notes:
-Hope's Josh Gibson, who finished the day tied for 17th with a 1-over 73, recorded a hole-in-one on El Campeon's 15th hole.
-Mack Farley of St. John's (Minnesota) won the NCAA Elite 90 award at Monday night's banquet, marking him as the student-athlete with the best GPA (3.96) of any competitor at this year's tournament.
This marks the third time that Oglethorpe University, the Central Florida Sports Commission and Mission Inn Resort and Club have combined to host the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship. The other two times were in 2005 and 2012.
