BEVERLY, Mass.- After holding a two stroke lead heading into the final day of competition at the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship, Endicott would fall short, finishing second by one stroke to Western New England. With the win, Western New England claims the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Tournament, breaking up a string of three straight CCC wins by Endicott. The remaining teams will wait to see if any of their individual golfers receive an at-large bid to the Tournament which will be held May 12-15th at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C.
Western New England followed up their first day score of 305 with a 306 on Sunday to finish with a two-day total of 611. The Golden Bears were led by John Abbott (Higganum, Conn.) and Matt Fontaine (East Longmeadow, Mass.) as the duo tied each other for second place overall with scores of 150. Endicott would finish second, recording a final team score of 612 following rounds of 303 and 309. Medalist honors for the tournament would go to Endicott's Austin Teal (Loudonville, N.Y.) as the junior posted a 147 after shooting rounds of 75 and 72, finishing first by three strokes. In third was Nichols as the team posted a two day total of 627 after posting a 313 in the opener and a 313 to close. The Bison were led by Kevin Wheeler's (Agawam, Mass.) 152 which tied him for fourth overall. Wentworth finished in fourth with a team score of 648 after rounds of 329 and 319 as the Leopards were led by Brandon Goold's (Foxboro, Mass.) 153 which placed him fifth overall.
Second for Endicott and in a tie for sixth overall was sophomore Dan Negus (Pembroke, Mass.) who finished with a 154. Negus opened the tournament with a round of 76 and closed day two with a 78. Just behind him was junior Alex Viola (Brunswick, Maine) as he shot a two day total of 157 following rounds of 77 and 80, tying him for 9th overall in the tournament.
Closing out the scoring for the Gulls were freshmen Drew Benshoff (Concord, Mass.) and Ben Palazzo (Farmington, Conn.) as the two shot tournament totals of 158 and 162. Benshoff carded identical rounds of 79 while Palazzo followed up a first round 75 with an 87 on day two.
