Daytona, FL-- After being picked to finish seventh in the preseason poll, Mount St. Mary’s played strong for three days and it paid off as the Mountaineers earned the program's first NEC Men’s Golf title on Sunday after shooting a three round team score of 900 (297-303-300). LIU Brooklyn and Fairleigh Dickinson finished in a tie for second after they both recorded three day totals of 918. Sacred Heart placed fourth (309-300-310=919), while Robert Morris placed fifth (309-312-306=927). Central finished sixth overall (314-304-310=928), followed by Monmouth in seventh (318-309-302=929). Rounding out the top-ten were Saint Francis (PA) (305-309-317=931), Wagner (328-328-320=976) and St. Francis (NY) (345-343-349=1037).
Individually, Sacred Heart’s Leo Garcia (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/Colegio Marista) went wire-to-wire and held on to win his first title, after sitting atop the leaderboard all three days of competition (72-72-75=219). The senior shoot even-72 on the first two days and shot a 75 on championship Sunday to finish at +3 for the tournament. Monmouth junior Ian Thimble (Hyde Park, MA/Boston College H.S.) nearly caught Garcia after recording a score of -2 on day three, but finished in second (73-77-70=220), just one shot behind the champion. Finishing tied for third were the Mount’s Kevin Ellison (Harrisburg, PA/Bishop McDevitt)(73-72-77) and LIU’s Josh Waters (London, England/St. Dunstan’s) (77-72-73), who both shot 222 on the weekend.
In addition to Ellison, Mount picked up three other spots in the top-10 as Devin O’Grady (Lancaster, PA/Manheim Township) and Tony Aizpun (Barcelona, Spain/Lycee Francais De Barcelone) placed fifth and sixth, respectively. O’Grady finished with a 224 (74-77-73), while Aizpun shot a 226 over three days (75-78-73). Rounding out the quartet of top finishers for the Mount was Danny Michalek (Mount Airy, MD/Mount St. Joseph), who was part of a two way tie for seventh (75-76-77=228).
Joining Michalek in a tie for seventh was Robert Morris junior Brock Pompeani (Aliquippa, PA/Hopewell), who shot 79-73-76 over the three days for a 228.
Central’s Dan Fanion (Westfield, MA/Westfield) (75-75-79= 229), St. Francis (NY)’s Adam User (Rego Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) (77-74-78=229) and Jamie Young (Barrie, Ontario/Eastview Secondary) (78-77-74=229) all finished in a tie for ninth to round out the top-10.
The top-10 finishers in this weekend's tournament earned a spot on the Conference's All-Tournament team for 2012. Also collecting an accolade was MSM head coach Kevin Farrell as he was selected the 2011 NEC Men's Golf Coach of the Year in a vote by his peers. This is the first time Farrell has received this honor.