TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The FGCU men's golf team is currently tied for 13th as the conclusion of Monday's second round of the Seminole Intercollegiate was halted due to darkness.
Round two is set to continue at 9 a.m. Tuesday, with the final round to follow immediately after. Tournament host and No. 8 Florida State comfortably leads the 15-team field, which includes four top-65 programs, at 19-under-par 282.
Second-place and No. 24 Ole Miss trails the Seminoles by 16 strokes. FGCU opened the tournament with its highest team score on the 2022-23 season, a 27-over 309.
"I'm really proud of our guys," said FGCU men's golf head coach Andrew Danna. "We are looking forward to getting back out there on the course Tuesday."
The Eagles were on pace to record a round-two 306 when play was halted. Senior Pierre Viallaneix (Apopka, Fla./Winter Park HS/Western Carolina) leads the FGCU starting five at one-over par, currently placing tied for 12th on the individual leaderboard. Viallaneix sits three-under par with three holes remaining in round two.
Florida State's Gray Albright leads the entire 81-golfer field at seven-under par.
Freshman Sam Baker (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet HS) is the next closest Eagle on the individual leaderboard, tying for 46th at seven-over par.
FGCU has been struggling to put circles on the scorecards thus far, as the Eagles are next-to-last in made birdies with 14. Viallaneix leads all Eagles in the category with five birdies.
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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 96 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 48 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. Nine FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22 and No. 22 in 2022-23), baseball (No. 20 in 2023), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022), and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as five 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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