By Jack Reyering, For The Miami Student
For the first time in 19 seasons, the Miami University men's golf team are Mid-American Conference champions. After jumping out in front of the pack at the beginning of the tournament, the RedHawks maintained their lead throughout the three-day, four-round championship in Chardon, Ohio.
The RedHawks have been near the top in nearly every tournament they have participated in this year, but their win at the MAC tournament was their first winning finish this spring. The win clinches a berth to the NCAA Regional competition.
Head coach Zac Zedrick was impressed with his team's ability to hold their lead throughout the entirety of the three day tournament.
"The other great piece to this is we went wire-to-wire," Zedrick said in a press release. "Leading from that first day and to maintain that in a four round tournament is very difficult to do. It's tough to go to bed with the lead two nights in a row and the guys did a tremendous job of handling that pressure."
As a team, Miami finished at 8 over par, eight strokes better than second place University of Toledo.
Three RedHawk golfers finished in the top five individually. Senior Scott Cahill tied for second overall, and junior Jack Sparling and freshmen Patrick Flavin tied for fourth.
Flavin, who has been the lowest scorer for the RedHawks in every tournament this spring, continued to impress this weekend. However, Zedrick felt it was the combined effort by the top three RedHawk golfers that allowed them to come out on top.
"To have that kind of performance from Scott, Jack and Pat this week was amazing," Zedrick said. "For them to all be in position to win individually obviously gels with what we had going on as a team."
In addition to winning the MACs, several individual RedHawk golfers won awards at the ceremony following the tournament. Zedrick won the Kermit Blosser Coach of the Year Award. Flavin was honored as MAC freshmen of the year and as a first-team all-MAC selection, while Scott Cahill was named to the MAC second team. Flavin, Cahill and Sparling all were named to the MAC all-tournament team.
MU's win at the MAC Championship means that the Miami University golf team is guaranteed a spot in one of six NCAA Regionals.
The RedHawks will compete in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the University of North Carolina Finley Golf Course. Miami garnered a 12 seed and will be competing against 12 other schools in the regional tournament. If the 'Hawks finish anywhere from first to fifth place in the 54-hole tournament, they will qualify for the NCAA Championships, which is held over the summer in late May.
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The NCAA Regionals tournament begins May 14 and runs through Saturday.
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