April 26, 2009

Complete Results

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- Three Mids finished among the top-six individual golfers and Navy placed second as a team at the 2009 Patriot League Men's Golf Championship that was completed Sunday at the West Point Golf Course in West Point, N.Y.

Tournament-host Army entered Sunday's third and final round of the championship with a one-stroke lead over Navy, while another three strokes separated the Mids from third-place Bucknell.

A total of six players would shoot a score of 74 or under on the par-70 course Sunday; three of those six golfers were from Bucknell and that trio of Andrew Cohen (69), Ben Mattingly (73) and Brian Bartow (74) helped rally the Bison to a final-day score of 292 and the overall team championship.

Navy's Tim Shield (Fr., Grosse Pointe Park, Mich.) and Peter Reilly (Fr., Merrimack, N.H.) tallied 73 and 74 strokes, respectively, Sunday as the Mids totaled the day's second-best score of 300. Their efforts allowed the Mids to end the tournament with an overall score of 889 and finish five strokes in back of the Bison and in second place in the final standings.

Army accrued 303 strokes on the final day to finish in third place overall with a three-day total of 891 strokes, Lehigh placed fourth at the championship with an overall score of 899 and Lafayette finished in fifth place with a tally of 911.

"Our guys played hard and left their hearts out on the course," said Navy head coach Pat Owen, who was one of three coaches to share the league's coach-of-the-year accolade. "It came down to the last few holes. Ryan Wielgus (Sr., Bethesda, Md.) had to try for an eagle from the 18th fairway for us to have any chance of winning, and his shot went over the green and he ended up with a bogey. Meanwhile, Bucknell's guy birdies the 18th hole, so right there was two, and potentially three of the five shots that separated the two teams in the end.

"This was our best tournament of the year in terms of scoring, so we really peaked at the right time. You have to give the credit to Bucknell for how they played today."

There were a total of four sub-par rounds posted by individuals during the tournament, with Cohen accounting for two of them. In the round he failed to break par in (the first), he finished with a 1-over par 71. He would finish the tournament with a three-round score of 2-under par 208 to win the individual title by eight strokes over Army's Matt Krembel (+6, 216).

After Krembel came a trio of golfers in Wielgus, teammate David Miller (Sr., Chillicothe, Ohio) and Lafayette's Tyler Ostrovsky in a tie for third place with respective scores of +11 (211). Reilly would follow in sixth place by himself with a score of +13 (213), a performance that earned him league rookie-of-the-year honors.

Additionally for Navy, Shield's final day 73 moved him into tie for 16th place in the final standings with a score of +20 (230), while Robert Merkert (So., Severna Park, Md.) placed 29th in the field with a score of +26 (236).

Navy was down a player again Sunday due to the fact that Marcus Heyland (So., Fort Madison, Iowa) was unable to complete his second round when he hurt his wrist. Heyland was two-under par late in his second round when his injury occurred.

Wielgus and team captain Miller, who earlier in the week was tabbed as the league's scholar-athlete of the year for the sport, earned first-team all-league honors, while Reilly was named to the league's second team.

"I'm happy for Ryan and David to be able to end their careers with the performances they had this weekend," said Owen. "They were our only seniors on the trip and we had two freshmen and two sophomores around them in the lineup, so those guys who will return for us gained a lot of valuable experience this weekend."

Individual Awards
Player of the Year: Andrew Cohen, Bucknell
Rookie of the Year: Peter Reilly, Navy
Coach of the Year: Jimmy Ray Clevenger, Army; Jim Cotner, Bucknell; Pat Owen, Navy Scholar-Athlete of the Year: David Miller, Navy
First-Team All-Patriot League: Andrew Cohen, Bucknell; Matt Krembel, Army; Tyler Ostrovsky, Lafayette; David Miller, Navy; Ryan Wielgus, Navy
Second-Team All-Patriot League: Peter Reilly, Navy; Duncan Zeiders, Lehigh; Shane Gilroy, Lehigh; Brian Bartow, Bucknell; William Park, Army

Final Team Standings and Results
1. Bucknell: 295-297-292=884
2. Navy: 287-302-300=889
3. Army: 286-302-303=891
4. Lehigh: 296-299-304=899
5. Lafayette: 299-304-308=911
6. Colgate: 310-310-303=923
7. Holy Cross: 316-314-322=952

Navy Individual Results
2. Navy: 287-302-300=889
T-3. David Miller: 69-76-76=221
T-3. Ryan Wielgus: 71-73-77=221
6. Peter Reilly: 72-77-74=223
T-16. Tim Shield: 75-82-73=230
29. Robert Merkert: 78-76-82=236
WD Marcus Heyland: 77-WD-WD