MORGANTON, N.C. – The Felician University men's golf team completed the fall-semester portion of 2017-18 by participating in the first regular-season 54-hole tournament in the 13-year history of its program. Felician finished 13th in the Donald Ross Intercollegiate, hosted by Lenior-Rhyne University on Monday and Tuesday at Mimosa Hills Golf and Country Club.
The tournament called for two 18-hole rounds on Monday and a third on Tuesday. Felician was the only team from the East Region of NCAA Division II in attendance.
Senior Andrew Capone (Denville, N.J./Parsippany Hills) highlighted Felician's stay in the Tar Heel State by firing a two-over-par 72 on the 6,718-yard course in Monday's opening round. He becomes the sixth Golden Falcon to ever shoot 72 or lower (10th overall occasion). Joe Peters holds the record of 70 on April 26, 2010.
Sophomore Jake Storako (Laurel Springs, N.J./Highland Regional) was Felician's low man for the tournament, however, besting Capone by one stroke. Storako improved each round, with his scorecard of 80-79-77 adding up to a +26 total of 236. He tied for 66th place out of 81 individual entries. Capone ended up with 237 (72-84-81) and tied for 69th.
Felician's line-up also included senior Chris Bekefi (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) (T-78th, 79-87-80-246), and junior Justin Keiser (Bellport, N.Y./Bellport) (80th, 84-84-82-250).
The Golden Falcons were in 12th place after the first round. Their 315 team score was one shot better than 13th-place Chowan University and 10 back of two squads tied for 10th. Felician, however, shot the highest round of the 13-team field in Round 2, a 334, and could not climb out of the bottom spot in the standings with Tuesday's 320. Its total of 969 (+129) was seven shots back of Chowan for 12th.
Newberry College easily won the tournament, going one shot under par with a performance of 285-280-274-839. It ended the event 29 strokes ahead of runner-up Belmont Abbey College. Individually, North Greenville University senior Evan Gfeller took medalist honors with a 69-66-72-207 (-3). Ben Thompson of Newberry was the only other golfer under par (71-72-66-209).
Storako leads Felician after the fall with a stroke average of 79.3 over 11 rounds.
