MSOE men's golf wins NAC qualifier, clinches spot in NCAA Championship
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Published: 04/19/2011 |
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No one saw it coming but the improbable happened. The MSOE Raiders men's golf team was behind conference foe Edgewood by ten strokes entering Monday's two-day Northern Athletics Conference Spring Automatic Qualifier Meet. The team with the lowest combined score of the NAC Fall Championship and spring AQ tournament receives the bid to the NCAA tournament.
Behind a 36-hole team score of 629, MSOE defeated Edgewood by eight strokes in the four-day combined event to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship. Raiders junior Dane Zachman was the medalist of the spring qualifier portion of the event with a 36-hole score of 144, shooting an even par to pace the field. The closest golfer to Zachman was Aurora's Dave Pecorella who was ten strokes off the pace.
Although Zachman's feat was spectacular, the Raiders were not a one-man show. All four golfers for MSOE finished the event tied for tenth place or higher in the standings. Senior Peter Eich shot 159, 15-over par for a fourth place tie, while teammates Jason Arnes and Ben Turk shot a 36-hole 163 (+19) tying for tenth place overall among the 47-golfer field.
This will be MSOE's second trip to the NCAA Championship as it finished 24th in the 2009 event, just a stroke shy of making the 23-team final. The national tournament will take place May 10-13 at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C.
