GCC Golf Team Has Runner - Up Finish in Regionals, Advances to Nationals - Places Four Players on All Region Team
The GCC Golf team headed to the Region III Golf Tournament in Cortland NY at the Cortland Country Club on May 16th and 17th not really sure about what to expect. They qualified with a little less strain than 2010, their first year of competition for the renewed GCC sport, but there were a lot of question marks.
They were confident, but wary of Onondaga CC, who was .75 of a point behind them in team scoring average for the season at third place. GCC was coming off an upset tournament victory over Monroe CC on May 8th at the MCC Invitational, so they had high expectations.
Those expectations materialized with an invite to Nationals as the team performed at a level that no one really could have predicted.
In the two day aggregate tournament where four scores count from five players for the team event, and individual scores are also tallied, the teams from the nine schools that qualified for Regionals that finish first and second are invited to Nationals, and the top 5 individual low scores - not including scores from the first and second place teams - also make the trip.
On Day one, which was played in very wet and rainy conditions after a four hour delay, GCC's Kyle Harman, a transfer student from Erie CC who won Regionals in 2010, took the individual lead with a 72.
It was a personal best score for Harman for tournament play.
GCC also positioned themselves in second place as a team, shooting 311, behind MCC (302), and one stroke ahead of Onondaga CC (312).
Day two's play got started as scheduled at 9am under wet conditions with light rain throughout the day.
Harman stumbled a bit to a 78, but every other player on GCC's team shot personal best tournament scores! Corey Kocent and Mark DeCook each shot even par 72's, Matt Ferdinand shot a 73, and Alex Muench shot 79, for a team score total of 295 for the day, tops in the field followed by MCC (298) and Onondaga CC (308) . The 295 score blew away the GCC team's previous best tournament score of 309 in 2010.
GCC also placed four players on the 2011 All Region Team as Harman, Ferdinand, Kocent, and DeCook each earned the honor.
Two day totals for the competing teams were:
302 298 600 MONROE CC
311 295 606 GENESEE CC
312 308 620 ONONDAGA CC
328 316 644 NIAGARA CCC
332 315 647 JAMESTOWN CC
333 324 657 MOHAWK VALLEY CC
351 336 687 BROOME CC
338 352 690 TOMPKINS CORTLAND CC
334 358 692 CAYUGA CC
Medalist for the event was MCC's Shane Dobesh with a two day total of 148. GCC's Matt Ferdinand and Kyle Harman joined Onondaga CC�s Alec Stoianoff and MCC�s Anthony Colosi in a four way tie for second place at 150.
GCC Golf Head Coach Tom Tucker and Assistant Coach Tom Moynihan will be accompanying the the GCC Golf team to the NJCAA Division III Nationals at the Chautauqua GC, Chautauqua NY on June 6 through 10
