MIDDLETOWN, Del. – Led by individual champion Andrew Geesey (Red Lion, Pa./Dallastown Area), Felician University finished in second place, a program record, at the 2016 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Men's Golf Championship tournament, hosted by Wilmington (Del.) University on Tuesday and Wednesday at Back Creek Golf Club.
Felician, competing as a varsity intercollegiate program for the 11th season, had never finished higher than fifth in the CACC Championship, and was coming off of an eighth place result in 2015. Geesey is not only the first Golden Falcon player to win the individual crown, but the first to make the all-tournament team (top five plus ties).
"The amount of work our guys put in as a group to make themselves better from the fall season until now is a credit to them," said Felician head coach Ben DiNallo Jr. "It's extremely rewarding to see it pay off with this result."
Felician was in second place after Tuesday's opening round after shooting 311, by far the school tournament record. But the Golden Falcons, who trailed eventual champion Wilmington by nine strokes, were just one shot ahead of third-place Dominican (N.Y.) College and two better than fourth-place Concordia (N.Y.) College.
Wilmington, the No. 2-ranked team in the NCAA Division-II East Region, came back with a 297 on Wednesday to easily claim its sixth consecutive conference championship. But the Golden Falcons once again shot the second-best round of the day, a 315, for a school tournament record two-day total of 626. Nyack College ended up in third place, 10 shots behind Felician.
"We never got rattled," DiNallo said. "The moment never got too big for us. We kept it together as a team for 36 holes."
Geesey held a one-shot lead over three players after Tuesday, making three birdies in his two-over-par round of 73, an individual school tournament record, on the 7,157-yard course. He increased his edge over the field to four strokes after nine holes on Wednesday, and held off a late charge from the league Player of the Year, Wilmington freshman Ryan Rucinski, to shoot 72 and win medalist honors with a 145. His final total is a Felician record for any 36-hole tournament.
Freshman Justin Keiser (Bellport, N.Y./Bellport), the No. 5 man in Felician's line-up, enjoyed his best tournament as a collegian. Keiser tied for ninth place out of 50 entrants after shooting 78-78-156.
"What I hope doesn't get lost in all of this is the incredible performance by Justin Keiser," DiNallo said. "He not only broke 80 for the first time in his career, but he did it twice – on a hard golf course in a pressure-packed environment."
Felician junior Justin Rasmus (Colonia, N.J./Colonia) made a bid for all-tournament honors before settling for a tie for 11th place, shooting 76-81-157. Rasmus who averaged 78.2 for the 2015-16 season, posted a stroke average of 76.4 for 10 rounds in the spring semester. Rasmus was 29th in this event a year ago.
Rounding out the Felician contingent were sophomores Chris Bekefi (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) (T-33rd, 84-84-168) and Andrew Capone (Denville, N.J./Parsippany Hills) (T-35th, 84-85-169).
The 2016 CACC All-Tournament Team consisted of Geesey, Carlos Fernandez-Herzog of Post University, Juan Roa of Concordia, and all five Wilmington starters – Rucinski, Andreas Lunding, Miguel Siercke, Sam Clark, and Joey Russo.
