RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Felician University men's golf team will compete in the 2021-22 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship tournament on Monday and Tuesday, October 4 and 5. The event will be hosted by Post University at Watertown Country Club in Watertown, Conn.
For the first time, the tournament is slated for 54 holes. Two 18-hole rounds will be conducted on Monday with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start. Play will commence again on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. with a single 18-hole round with traditional tee times. More information is available at https://www.caccathletics.org/sports/golf/2021-22/releases/930Champ.
The CACC, in partnership with BlueFrame Technology, expects to supply free live streaming video on the CACC Network starting at 8 a.m. from Holes 1 and 18 each day at http://www.caccnetwork.com. Post and the conference also intend to offer Live Scoring at https://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=24150.
Felician is guided by interim co-head coaches Ben "JR" DiNallo and Brandon Schiesser. The Golden Falcons finished fourth out of seven competing schools in last year's event, which was held during the spring semester and shortened to 18 holes due to the COVID-19 public health crisis.
"Our guys are excited," Schiesser said. "We need to go in with the mentality of hitting fairways and putting ourselves in position to hit decent approach shots. If we look for pars and take advantage of birdie opportunities when they come, we can avoid the really big numbers."
Each of the eight conference schools may enter five golfers, with the top four scores each day comprising its team score. Felician is led by senior Gonzalo Maldonado Felices (Almeria, Spain/Stella Maris), who entered the season as the No. 3 man in career scoring in Golden Falcon history.
Below Maldonado Felices, DiNallo and Schiesser will pencil in four names of players who are either in the first or second semester of collegiate golf. Sophomore Nathan Sampson (Leeds, England/Crossley Heath School) will be trusted to the No. 2 spot in the lineup. He will be followed by freshman Kristian O'Grady (Thiells, N.Y./Albertus Magnus), sophomore Dylan Molloy (Spotswood, N.J./Spotswood) and freshman Brandon Mudrick (Hamburg, N.J./Wallkill Valley).
The top five individual finishers, plus ties, after Tuesday's round will be named CACC All-Tournament.
"Gonzalo is a guy that should be a player to watch as far as All-Tournament," Schiesser said. "For everyone else, this event is a chance to make a name for themselves in our conference. In a 54-hole event, there's plenty of opportunity to recover from a bad hole or two, especially if we can avoid those extra strokes that often happen on the greens."
Felician seeks its first CACC Championship; it was the runner-up in (spring) 2016. Andrew Geesey won the individual title that year, the only Golden Falcon to do so. Felician's all-time history in the CACC Tournament can be viewed at https://felicianathletics.com/sports/mgolf/archive/Golf-CACCs.
The team champion of the 2021-22 CACC Men's Golf Championship tournament will automatically qualify for the 2022 NCAA Division II Atlantic/East Regional Championship. Dominican (N.Y.) College is the event's defending champion.
Felician University engages more than 2,400 undergraduate, graduate, and adult students through programs in Arts & Sciences, Business, Nursing, and Education. Universal Franciscan values of respect, social justice, and compassion form an inclusive foundation for transforming the lives of tomorrow's leaders. Felician University was ranked 3rd-best return on investment for private colleges in New Jersey in 2018 by the PayScale.com College ROI Report and is ranked the No. 1 safest college campus in the state by niche.com. Felician also sponsors 14 varsity intercollegiate sports that compete at the NCAA Division II level. To learn more about Felician University please visit www.felician.edu.
