Gorloks Ready To Tee Off In NCAA Championships
The Webster University golf team, which won the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference on April 18 at Aberdeen GC in Eureka, MO, automatically qualified for the NCAA III Championships with the victory. It was the Gorloks' seventh SLIAC Championship and will be the fifth time they have participated in the NCAA III Championships.
The championships will be held May 16-19, at the Mission Inn Resort & Club, in Howey-in-the-Hills, FL. The tournament will be hosted by Oglethorpe University (GA) and the Central Florida Sports Commission. In addition to the 42 teams in the field, a total of 215 individual golfers will compete at the 2017 championships, with five at-large golfers in that total.
Head coach Andrew Belsky, named the SLIAC 2017 Coach of the Year, the sixth time he has received the honor, is hoping his team makes the cut after the first two rounds for the first time in its fifth try. The top 18 teams after two rounds advance to rounds 3 & 4, and the top six individuals not on an advancing team, advance as well.
Jon Hughes (SR, Gardner, KS/Gardner Edgerton) enters the tournament with the season low average of 75.07 per round for Webster and had four top 10 finishes in 10 events. Hughes' average is the currently the second lowest season average in team history, topping his 75.14 average for 2015-16.
Zac Ciesla (FR, Lake Charles, LA/Alfred M. Barbe) is second low at 75.77. Ciesla had three top five finishes including topping the leader board at #1 in two and a fifth place finish in the SLIAC Championship. He was the SLIAC 2017 Newcomer of the Year.
Will Murphy (SO, Staunton, IL/Mt. Olive) is third for Webster with a 77.12 average per round and one top five finish, coming in the SLIAC Championship. Matt Gordon (SR, St. Clair, MO/St. Clair) is fourth with a 77.64 average and one top five finish, also coming in the SLIAC Championship.
Peter Conowall (SO, Madison, WI/East) is fifth with a 78.05 average and one top 10 finish, coming in the SLIAC Championship as well.
Ciela, Murphy, and Gordon were all 2017 SLIAC First Team All-Conference, and Hughes and Conowall were Second Team All-Conference.
STORY COURTESY OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
