WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – In the first match of the fall, the Southeastern University men's golf team battled a tough field to a fifth place finish in the Seahawk Shootout, hosted by No. 2 Keiser University.
Two young Fire golfers – sophomore Spencer McCranie and freshman Connor Williams – paced the team's three-day efforts as part of a five-way tie for 14th with a plus-6 finish and 207 identical scores. The two SEU players had opposite day 67 and 69 scores in the first two days and both had a 71 in Tuesday's final day.
"The golf course was very tricky with extremely sloped greens," said head coach, David Joyner. "We just made too many double bogeys each round. We will learn from it and play better next week at Innisbrook."
Host Keiser showed its team depth in the 10-team event by taking the top three places and were 50 strokes better from the top group to Webber International in fourth (+28/832). SEU registered a plus-31 for a team stroke score of 835 with rounds of 278, 271 and 286.
Keiser's Nicolas Llanos claimed the medalist award with an 8-under score of 193 with two of the lowest three rounds. Verdant Sirohi of Webber International and Jan Sustek and Adam Buchanan from Keiser tied for second.
SEU's second pair of Zach Shaw and Nicholas Faraone posted a plus-13 (214) in a three-way finish for 33rd. Shaw had a top round of 67 while Faraone was consistent in the event with two scores of 71.
Completing the Fire group, sophomore Marley Read was only two strokes behind his two teammates with a 216 (+15) for 37th. Read had an opening round of 69 as his best of the three.
SEU returns to action in five days for the three-day Invite at Innisbrook from Sept. 22-24 held in Palm Harbor, Fla.
