Posted: Oct 16, 2020
On October 16th, 2016 the Saint Joseph's College golf team claimed the first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Golf Championship in program history at the Gorham Country Club.
Saint Joseph's topped the nine-team field with a 607 (301-306) card to earn the coveted conference championship and subsequent automatic berth into the NCAA DIII Tournament, which was played at the Mission Inn Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida May 16 – 19, 2017. http://www.missioninnresort.com
THE PLAYERS:
- 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 was his best in 12 career 36-hole events
- The conference championship was 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 that weekend, the Monks' top GNAC Championship finish was fourth (2006 & 2007) and best team card was 632 (2011 & 2014)
- In 2015, 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
