Men's Golf Continues Winning Ways as it Claims its Ninth Straight Empire 8 Champ
For the ninth consecutive season, the St. John Fisher College men's golf team stands atop the Empire 8 as the Cardinals wrapped up the Empire 8 Spring Championship on Sunday with a combined team score of 308 (+24) to win the conference crown and an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship in May. Fisher, which has now won 16 conference titles in its history, finished the 72-hole championship at +63, which was 16 strokes ahead of the field.
SUNY Oswego finished in second place overall at +79 while Stevens Institute of Technology was in third place at +111. Utica College finished fourth overall (+115) while Nazareth College rounded out the top five at +138.
Christopher Thompson, who was named First-Team All-Conference following the weekend, was the top overall finisher for Fisher after completing the spring championship at +5. Thompson, who carded four birdies on the day and made the turn at -1, finished the 72-hole championship at +14 overall.
Nicholas Calabrese tied for fourth place in the spring championship and was named Second-Team All-Conference after carding a second round 78 to finish at +10 on the weekend and +22 for the Championship. Colin McGaugh, who earned a First-Team All-Conference selection, posted a ninth place finish on Sunday after the junior posted a final round 78 to finish at 13-over on the weekend and +17 for the four-round Championship.
Michael Long was named Second-Team All-Conference after finishing 14th on the leader board after the senior shaved five strokes off of Saturday's score to finish at 78 (+7) on Sunday. Andrew Fedele, who was also named Second-Team All-Conference, tied for 15th overall at the spring championship after carding a final round 85.
In all, the Cardinals led the field with 20 birdies on the weekend. Fisher's 105 pars tied with Stevens for the most. Calabrese led all scorers on par-three holes with an average score of 3.13 while Thompson averaged 4.33 on par-five holes as the senior was four-under on the weekend.