BRYAN, Texas - Fifth-year Jon Hopkins and junior Austin Cherichella find themselves near the top of the individual leaderboard Monday as FGCU men's golf completed day one action of The Aggie Invitational.
Hopkins (Bishop's Stortford, England/Hockerill Anglo-European College/Mississippi Gulf Coast CC) enters Tuesday's final round tied for fifth, while Cherichella is tied for 11th among a loaded 13-team field - two top 25 and four top-50 programs. Hopkins is perched just three shots back of the tournament leader, Louisville's Max Kennedy at 7-under.
"Really proud of our team," said FGCU men's golf head coach Andrew Danna. "They did a great job closing out the long day. We are looking forward to getting back out there in the morning."
Hopkins began his day with a one-under 71 but would surpass his round-one performance with a three-under 69 (tied season low) to finish at 4-under.
He has particularly shined on the front nine thus far by posting a combined score of 4-under-par, 1-under in the opening round and 3-under during round two. Hopkins has played even-par golf on the back nine despite shooting a triple bogey (8) on his very first hole of the day. He is just one of five golfers to have sunk 10-or-more birdies.
Teammate Cherichella (Orlando, Fla./Lake Nona HS) fired back-to-back one-under 71s and sits at 2-under-par for the tournament. Both of Cherichella's under-par efforts improved upon his team-leading mark of 13 par or better rounds this season.
The next closest Eagle on the individual leaderboard is freshman Sam Baker (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet HS), who is currently 52nd entering Tuesday.
As a team, the Eagles lie in 11th place (586) as No. 33 Louisville leads the tournament field at 20-under. No. 15 and tournament host Texas A&M is second at 9-under-par through the first two rounds of play.
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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 97 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 in 2021-22 and No. 22 in 2022-23), baseball (No. 15 in 2023), beach volleyball (No. 20 in 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 3.67 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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