Charleston, S.C. ? Although the Stetson men's golf team slipped from the lead in the final round of the Charleston Southern Invitational Tuesday at Crowfield Plantation Golf Club, the Hatters did enough to hold onto second place in the 11-team field with a +38 team score.  Freshman Sam Ryder earned his best career finish, tying for seventh place at six over par for 54 holes.

All five Stetson golfers finished in the top 25 individually with sophomore Gabe Costa (Tequesta, Fla.) following Ryder at +10, in a tie for 12^th place.  Senior Tommy Parker (Palm Beach, Fla.) shot a team-best three over par round of 75 over his final 18 holes to tie for 17^th place at +13 while sophomore Michael Stewart finished at +14, one stroke ahead of junior Dave McAndrew.  Both players shot 82 in the final round as Stewart tied for 20^th and McAndrew tied for 24^th.

Presbyterian's Thomas Todd blistered the course for a six under par 66 today to win the individual title by one stroke over Ryan Bell of Gardner-Webb.  Joshua Kinsey (Jacksonville) placed third at +2.

On a tough scoring day where every other team finished at least nine strokes over par, Murray State turned in a one over par 289 in the final round to win the team championship by 10 strokes over the runner-up Hatters.  Radford and Presbyterian tied for third one shot behind Stetson while Gardner-Webb placed fifth at +41.  The rest of the field included Atlantic Sun rival Jacksonville (+50), USC Beaufort (+59), High Point (+76), College of Charleston “B” Team (+78), host Charleston Southern (+82) and Montreal (+96).

The Hatters face a quick turnaround as they compete this Friday-Sunday at the Bethune-Cookman Invitational, which will be held at Daytona Beach's Indigo Lakes Golf Club.