PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – In a tournament consisting of five top-50 programs, the FGCU men’s golf team is sixth through two rounds of play Monday at the Sea Best Invitational on Monday.
The Eagles opened the spring season with a 285 team score in the morning round on the Dye’s Valley course at TPC Sawgrass — a 6,790-yard, par-70 layout. The Green & Blue’s second-round 292 forced the Eagles to slip three spots from third to sixth.
Despite falling a few places, FGCU (577) remains 13 strokes ahead of No. 31 Lipscomb (590). The Eagles sit just a stroke back of Power Five opponent No. 44 Louisville and six strokes behind No. 40 Liberty.
No. 9 Florida leads the 13-team field at 5-under 555 for the tournament. The Gators also currently claim the top spot on the individual leaderboard, as Giovanni Manzoni paces the field at 4-under with back-to-back rounds in the 60s.
FGCU junior Austin Cherichella (Orlando, Fla./Lake Nona HS) leads the Eagles, currently tied for 12th. Cherichella opened his tournament with a 2-over 72 highlighted by an eagle on the par-4 fourth hole. Cherichella later found his groove to improve by three strokes, and posted a bogey-free, 1-under 69 to enter the clubhouse 1-over.
Cherichella is one of only nine golfers to hold a combined under-par score on Dye’s Valley’s par-4 holes.
Fifth-year senior John Hopkins (Bishop’s Stortford, England/Hockerill Anglo-European College/Mississippi Gulf Coast CC) is tied for 24th at 4-over, and senior Pierre Viallaneix (Apopka, Fla./Winter Park HS/Western Carolina) sits tied for 26th at 5-over entering the final round of competition. Hopkins is tied for fifth in total pars (27) along with fellow teammate Cherichella.
Tuesday’s final round is slated to begin at 8 am
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FGCU STARTING FIVE:
T12 Austin Cherichella 72-69 | 141 | +1
T24 John Hopkins 71-73 | 144 | +4
T26 Pierre Viallaneix 71-74 | 145 | +5
T49 Lucas Fallotico 74-76 | 150 | +10
T62 Sam Baker 71-81 | 152 | +12
*FGCU Individuals
T42 Thomas Salanito 78-70 | 148 | +8
T49 Lukas Roessler 75-75 | 150 | +10
TEAM LEADERBOARD:
1 – #9 Florida 279-272 | 555 | -5
2 – #42 North Florida 286-275 | 561 | +1
3 – #40 Liberty 291-280 | 571 | +11
T4 – #44 Louisville 285-291 | 576 | +16
T4 – Jacksonville 284-292 | 576 | +16
6 – #60 FGCU 285-292 | 577 | +17
7 – FAU 290-288 | 577 | +18
8 – #31 Lipscomb 294-296 | 590 | +30
9 – Charleston Southern 297-294 | 591 | +31
10 – College of Charleston 295-297 | 592 | +32
11 – UTSA 304-289 | 593 | +33
12 – Campbell 304-290 | 594 | +34
13 – USC Upstate 301-303 | 604 | +44
HEAD COACH ANDREW DANNA
Danna is in his fourth year at the helm of the men’s golf program with the Eagles earning FGCU’s first-ever NCAA Tournament at-large berth in department history during the 2022 season. He has led the Eagles to second-place finishes at the 2021 and 2022 ASUN Championships and was named the program’s first-ever ASUN Coach of the Year (2021) and repeated in 2022. One of the best turnarounds in NCAA history saw the Green and Blue, led by Van Holmgren who became the first player to earn PING All-Region honors, jump from No. 257 in the final 2019-20 GolfStat.com rankings to a then program-best 65 to close out 2020-21. The Eagles set a new program-best during the 2022 season at No. 47 in the GolfStat.com rankings. Holmgren won the ASUN Championship individual title to qualify for the NCAA Regionals. Before taking over in Fort Myers, he served the 2018-19 season as the assistant at LSU. Prior to that he was the ultra-successful head coach for six years at Lynn University where he led them to the 2018 NCAA Division II national championship and was, subsequently, chosen the David Williams National Coach of the Year. He also led the Fighting Knights to three national runner-up placements, with a third and eighth place finish in his other two seasons.
EAGLE CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our newest goal – a $10 million campaign to address student-athlete needs in continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning as well as departmental needs in facility expansion and improvement as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the purpose of the EAGLE Campaign – Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join Our Team and pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics’ charities of choice . For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry and use the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 94 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15-plus seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11-plus seasons of DI postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 47 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men’s golf team became the first program to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women’s basketball (No. 20, 2021-22 and No. 25 in 2022-23) beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men’s soccer ( 2018, 2019) and women’s soccer (2018) as four of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green & Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors’ Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA’s Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.66 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2022 semester and has outperformed the general university undergraduate population for 27 consecutive semesters. The past seven semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
—FGCUATHLETICS.COM—