Williams wins NESCAC Men's Golf Title - April 28, 2008
Kensington, CT – Williams took a 12-shot advantage to the first tee on day two of the NESCAC Championship and the Ephs expanded their stroke lead to 13 over second place Hamilton College in taking home the NESCAC Championship at Shuttle Creek CC.
A second day total of 299, just two strokes behind Hamilton College’s 297 was good enough to secure the NESCAC title for the Ephs (590), with Hamilton finishing second by 13 shots (603), winning the tie-breaker over Middlebury (613). Host Trinity was fourth with a team score of 618.
Middlebury's George Baumann took medalist honors with a two-day total of 144, edging the Eph first year tandem of Drew Murray and John Killea at 145.
Play on day two was very even across the board of top finishers, with third place Middlebury carding a 300 and host Trinity ending in fourth with a 301 day two total.
"Playing with a lead is sometimes more difficult to do in golf because of the tremendous amount of time to become conscious about your surroundings. I think we handled the pressure quite nicely and stuck to our game plan for the golf course on the second day."
Williams got great consistency on day two – Matt Felser (74), John Killea (74), Drew Murray (76), Jake Wagner (76) and co-captain Brendan Conley (76). Junior Matt Felser and first year Jake Wagner had the best round of the day for the Ephs with a 74. Felser finished with a 147 Wagner finished at 153. Senior Brendan Conley shot 157 over the course of the two-day tournament.
This win guarantees Williams a bid to the NCAA tournament, which will be held May 13-16th at the Chateau Elan Resort and hosted by Emory University. This marks the ninth NESCAC title the Ephs have won under Pohle and the 10th time Williams has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in team play -- all under Rick Pohle. "I am especially proud of the efforts put forth by this group of young men. They fully support each other (on and off the golf course) and push each other to improve their games," said Pohle.
"This will be the first time for most of the players from this team to make the trip to the NCAA Tournament, although Brendan Conley was on the team that competed in 2005 at Howey-in-the-Hills, FL," noted Pohle. "I expect to hear from a number of our past players with encouragement and words of wisdom for this team on what to expect at the championship. The one change we will have to deal with is that 35 teams now make it to the NCAA Tournament and after two rounds the field is cut to the low 18 teams - that will be our first goal." |
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