HENNIKER, N.H. - The New England College men's golf team is set to compete in the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships this coming week, marking the third straight year as the representatives of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) on the national stage.
The team will depart Henniker on Saturday, May 9th, as they travel down to Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, a small town nestled in the rolling hills of Central Florida roughly 45 minutes northeast of Orlando. The competition will be held at the Mission Resort and Club, home to two award-winning courses, El Campeón and Las Colinas, both of which will play host to the four-day tournament.
NEC returns to the NCAA Championships after winning the GNAC Championship for a third consecutive season this past Fall. After ending Day 1 of the competition tied for third place, the Pilgrims rallied back on Day 2 to finish in first place with a 10-stroke victory. The win was one of five first-place finishes this season across the Fall and Spring seasons.
At the GNACs, senior Graham Hassan (Pinckney, Mich.) led the way as he became the lone Pilgrim to be a part of each of the three Championship winning teams over the past three seasons. Hassan sparked the comeback win with the tournament's best single-day score with a 70 (E) to finish second overall and earn GNAC All-Conference First Team honors. He has five top five finishes this season and leads the team with a +6.5-scoring average.
Freshman Emil Elias (Ekerö, Sweden) joined Hassan on the GNAC All-Conference First Team with a fourth-place overall finish as a rookie. Elias has finished inside the top 10 in each of his last eight competitions and is most recently coming off a sixth-place finish at the NEC Spring Invite. The freshman has, at times, been a catalyst to the team's success and will play a key role for the 'Grims this coming week.
Sophomore Vesse-Wincent Lampen (Espoo, Finland) was the Pilgrims' third highest finisher at the GNAC Championships, narrowly missing All-Conference status with an 11th place finish. The sophomore has been very steady this season and had a top five finish early in the Fall up at Jay Peak. After getting his first taste of NCAA Championship play last season, Lampen is ready to go for year two.
Sophomore Bryce Sturm (Lake in the Hills, Ill.) is coming off his best performance of the season, tying for fourth place overall at the NEC Spring Invite after scoring a 73 (+3) down at Derryfield. Yet, he has not been the hottest golfer on the team this Spring as that has been sophomore Dalton Gordon (Boscawen, N.H.) who has posted scores of 75 (+5) and 77 (+7) for a team-best average of 6.0 this calendar year. Both Sturm and Gordon will look to stay hot as they build off their NCAA Championship debuts from a year ago.
The 'Grims will play a pair of practice rounds, starting on Las Colinas on Sunday at 10:00 AM before moving over to El Campeón on Monday at 9:00 AM.
Competition officially begins on Tuesday, where NEC will begin play on El Campeón with the first 'Grim set to tee off on the 10th hole at 12:20 PM. For Wednesday's Day 2 action, the Pilgrims move over to Las Colinas with an 8:20 AM start time on hole number one. The top 18 schools who make the cut at the conclusion of Wednesday's second round will advance to the final two rounds on Thursday and Friday, each of which will be played on El Campeón where a winner will be crowned at the end of the week.
Live scoring throughout the tournament can be tracked here
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