GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The FGCU men's golf team finished ninth Sunday at the VyStar Credit Union Gators Invitational.
FGCU resumed the second round Sunday morning, as Saturday's conclusion was halted due to lightning and ensuing darkness. The Eagles would open the two-day tournament with its best team round of the event, a round-one 287.
FGCU followed that up with a 288 in the second round and a 296 in the final round to close with an 871, nine strokes better than Power Five opponent West Virginia and four shots shy of T-7th Penn State. As a team, FGCU recorded the third-most pars among the 14-team field with 175.
"I'm really proud of our team and the effort that they displayed," said FGCU head men's golf coach Andrew Danna. "We are eagerly looking forward to our next opportunity to compete next month."
No. 8 Florida won both the team and individual titles. The Gators racked up a 14-under-par team score, and Ricky Castillo won the individual medalist in a playoff hole over Georgia Southern's Mason Williams at 11-under.
FGCU senior Pierre Viallaneix (Apopka, Fla./Winter Park HS/Western Carolina) paced the Eagles starting five, finishing tied for 18th at 4-over 214 and placing higher than three top-100 golfers in the GolfStat rankings. Viallaneix opened with back-to-back even-par rounds of 70 and closed with a 74.
Junior Austin Cherichella (Orlando, Fla./Lake Nona HS) also finished higher than three top-100 golfers, tying for 24th but snapping his streak of five consecutive under-par rounds. Cherichella carded rounds of 70, 71, and 75 to finish 6-over.
Both fifth-year senior Jon Hopkins (Bishop's Stortford, England/Hockerill Anglo-European College/Mississippi Gulf Coast CC) and freshman Sam Baker (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet HS) improved on their round-two scorecards -- as Hopkins (72) cut five strokes and Baker (76) eliminated three shots in the final round.
FGCU returns to action March 13-14 at the Seminole Intercollegiate hosted by Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla.
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FGCU STARTING FIVE:
TEAM LEADERBOARD:
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.
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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 D-I 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.
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