Braselton, Ga. ? The Stetson men's golf team earned one of the biggest wins in program history today as it took home the championship of the Larry Nelson Collegiate Invitational, hosted by Kennesaw State University.  The Hatters finished 18 over par for 54 holes, besting Murray State and most notably nationally 29^th-ranked A-Sun rival ETSU by four strokes each.  Stetson senior Tommy Parker (Palm Beach, Fla.) finished even par overall and tied for the individual title with ETSU's Seamus Power, the nation's 38^th-ranked golfer by GolfWeek.com.

Parker, junior Dave McAndrew (Barrington, R.I.) and sophomore Gabe Costa (Tequesta, Fla.) each came home with two over par 73s in Tuesday's final round to key the push past the Buccaneers and the Racers.  McAndrew tied for 12^th individually at +8 while Costa tied for 23rd at +10.  Freshman Sam Ryder (Longwood, Fla.) rounded out the scoring effort on the final day with a five over par 76.  Ryder earned his best collegiate finish at two over par for 54 holes, tying for third place two strokes behind Parker and Power.  Senior Greg Chalas (Natick, Mass.) also played well for the Hatters over the two-day event at The Woodlands at Chateau Elan, carding 78-72-79 and tying for 48^th place at 16 over par.

Time and weather constraints prevented Parker and Power from competing in a playoff for medalist honors.  Parker won the Jacksonville University Invitational title outright in February and lost a playoff to McAndrew at the Bethune-Cookman Invitational this past October.

The team championship was quite the upset victory for a 135^th-ranked Hatter contingent that knocked off an ETSU squad more than 100 spots higher in the rankings that reached the final stage of the 2008 NCAA Championships.  The key for the victory probably came in yesterday's second round when Stetson set a school single-round record with a four under par 280 team score that moved it up the leaderboard from fifth to second.

ETSU and Murray State tied for second at +22 with former A-Sun foe Gardner-Webb placing a distant fourth at +34.  Five other A-Sun teams were in the field, the rest of whom finished in the following order: Florida Gulf Coast (+37), USC Upstate (+40), Columbia (+47), host Kennesaw State (+47), Belmont (+49), Morehead State (+51), Jacksonville (+52), Tennessee Tech (+53), Tennessee-Martin (+57) and Belmont-Abbey (+65).

The Hatters will tee it up one more time in the regular season, heading to the Charleston Southern Spring Invitational April 6-7.