Lake Worth, Fla. – The Stetson men's golf team posted three solid scores over Easter weekend in the FAU Slomin Autism Invitational at the Fountains Country Club North Course, but against a field of low scoring teams the Hatters finished 16th.
Stetson had scores of 290, 307 and 298 to finish the tournament with a score of 895.
In a battle of nationally-ranked teams, Ole Miss caught, and then pulled away from, Connecticut to take the tournament title. The Rebels finished the tournament with an 11-under par team score of 841. The Huskies finished in second place at even par followed by UCF in third with a four-over par score of 856.
The Knights were led by Manuel Elvira who tied with Patrick Flavin from Miami University (Ohio) and Braden Thornberry from Ole Miss for medalist honors. The trio all finished the tournament with an eight-under par score of 205 on the par 71 course.
The Hatters were paced by freshmen Jared Nicolls and Baylor Payne. Both finished the tournament with 11-over par scores of 224 to tie for 67th. Tyler Dierwechter finished two shots further back in a tie for 73rd while Tate Smith finished at 15-over par to tie for 77th.
EJ Grimes closed with a solid round of 73 on Sunday, tied for low of the day for Stetson with Nicolls, to finish 19 over par in a tie for 86th place. Sophomore Chase Levesque, who played in the tournament as an individual, finished tied for 92nd with a 24-over par score of 237.
The Hatters will be back on the road this weekend to play in the East Carolina Intercollegiate at the Brook Valley Country Club in Greenville, NC. Play in that event will start on Monday, April 4, with 36 holes of competition. The final 18 holes are scheduled for Tuesday, April 5.
