4/24/2005 - Men's Golf
Navy Finishes Fourth at Patriot League Golf Championship

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Final ? Team Standings
Final ? Individual Standings

LEWISBURG, Pa. ? Led by senior captain Rocky Novellino's (Bayville, N.J.) 12th-place individual finish, the Navy golf team placed fourth at the 2005 Patriot League Golf Championship held at the Bucknell Golf Club in Lewisburg, Pa. Army (860, +20) outlasted the host Bison (867, +27) in the final round to claim its second-consecutive Patriot League golf championship. Meanwhile, Bucknell sophomore Charlie Waddell birdied two of the final three holes to edge teammate Ben Pellicani by one shot for the Patriot League individual title. Waddell shot 67-71-71 and tied the Patriot League Championship record with a 54-hole total of 1-under-par 209. He is the first Bucknell player to win a Patriot League individual title.

American, which held a two-stroke lead over the Midshipmen after the first round, moved up two spots to finish third, 18 strokes behind the Black Knights. Navy followed in the Eagles' footsteps, as it also improved two spots over its first-round effort to finish fourth with a 54-hole mark of 895 (+55). AU and Navy passed Lehigh (899, +59) and Holy Cross (909, +69) who faltered in the second and final rounds to place fifth and sixth, respectively. Colgate (923, +83) and Lafayette (925, +85) rounded out the field as the Raiders, who trailed the Leopards by two strokes after the opening round and were deadlocked with LC going into the final round, went on to edge Lafayette by two strokes.

?The effort was there all weekend by our players,? said Navy head coach Pat Owen. ?Give Army credit, they put up some amazing numbers. They averaged a 71 as a team.

?I was encouraged by the play of our young players. We will be a young team next year with no seniors, but we will continue to get stronger as a team.?

Sunday began with 19 players heading out to finish their second rounds, which had been suspended by a late-afternoon thunderstorm on Saturday. Navy seniors Braxton Mashburn (Memphis, Tenn.) and Novellino were among those 19 players which were forced to finish out second-round play before setting out for the final round. Both players finished the second round with the team's best mark of 4-over par 74 to give both players confidence heading into the final 18 holes.

Novellino improved upon his second-round score with a 3-over par 73 in the final round to finish the tournament tied for 12th with a 14-over par 225.

Rookie Erich Schoen (Sylvania, Ohio) and sophomore Mike Pierce (Houston, Texas) tied for 21st with a 17-over par 227. Schoen started the tournament off red-hot with a 2-over par in the opening round, but struggled in the chilly conditions Sunday where he posted a 9-over par 79. Pierce, meanwhile, improved each round and topped out with a 3-over par 73 in the final round.

Sophomore Bryan Stoniecki (Montgomery, Ill.) turned in the second-lowest mark of the final round with a 1-over par 71. It was a positive way to end the weekend after turning in an 80 and 77 in the first and second rounds, respectively. Stoniecki placed 27th with an 18-over par 228.

Rounding out play for the Midshipmen were Mashburn and freshman Chris Renninger (Darnestown, Md.). Mashburn finished just two strokes behind Stoniecki in 28th with a 230, while Renninger tied for 37th with a 25-over par 235. Renninger opened the tournament with back-to-back solid performances with a 74 and 77, but stumbled in the final round with a 14-over par 84.

Army placed five of its six players in the top 10, led by Scott Manley and Pete Phipps, who tied for fourth at 214. Austin Luher shot 219 to finish seventh and Joey Cave shot 222 to tie for 10th. Also earning All-Patriot League honors with top-10 finishes were American's Kevin Horan (3rd, 213) and Adam Kolloff (6th, 218), Holy Cross' Matt Czarnecki (9th, 221) and Lehigh's Ross Feldman (T-10th, 222).

Bucknell's Jim Cotner and Colgate's Brad Houston shared Patriot League Coach-of-the-Year honors.


G-o N-a-v-y