MOBILE, Ala. – The FGCU men's golf team wrote the final chapter to the 2023 season Wednesday, finishing ninth at the ASUN Championship.
FGCU closed the two-day tournament with a 3-over 291, and matched the lowest 54-hole team total ever posted by a Green & Blue squad at an ASUN Championship event with a 19-under 845.
The Eagles also opened the event with team season-low and a program-best round at an ASUN Championship event, a 276.
"I'm really proud of our team," said FGCU men's golf head coach Andrew Danna. "Every tournament is an opportunity to learn and get better. We'll look to learn from this event, and be ready at our next opportunity to compete."
No. 39 Liberty won the team title at 53-under-par 811. Liberty's Jonathan Yaun captured the individual title for the Flames as well with an 18-under par effort.
Four of the FGCU championship starting five finished with under-par scores. Freshman Lukas Roessler (Santiago, Chile/Olimpo School) put together a career best performance, tying for 11th at 9-under to pace all Eagles.
Rosseler carded three consecutive under-par rounds, including a career-low 68 during Monday's second round. His 17 birdies led all Eagles, and tied for fourth across the 68-golfer field.
Junior Austin Cherichella (Orlando, Fla./Lake Nona HS) tied for 21st, which included a team-low 65. Cherichella's second-round effort tied the lowest round ever posted at an Eagle at the ASUN Championship.
Through the first 36 holes, Cherichella sank a total of eight birdies, produced two eagles, and had only two bogeys. He was one of just two golfers to connect on multiple eagles. Cherichella finished at 6-under.
Fifth-year Jon Hopkins (Bishop's Stortford, England/Hockerill Anglo-European College/Mississippi Gulf Coast CC) finished 3-under to tie for 37th, and junior Thomas Salanito's (Palm Harbor, Fla./Clearwater Central Catholic) 1-under-par showing tied for 40th across the individual leaderboard. Salanito's 41 pars were just one off the tournament leader in the category.
As a team, the Eagles notched the third most pars among the 14-team championship field with 176.
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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 98 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 ASUNand 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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