The women’s golf team has finished up its 2015-2016 season at the SoCon Championship, while the men are in the middle of their run at SoCon Championships, preparing to continue onto the NCAA Regionals.
The women have had a season of many different tournament finishes, but it all led to placing third out of nine at the SoCon Championships two weeks ago at the Savannah Quarters Country Club in Pooler, Georgia.
The Bucs had three athletes finish in the top 10 of the tournament. Linda Dobele (Ogre, Latvia) finished in the top five with her best performance of the year, shooting 3-over-par 147 in her final two rounds. Freshman Hee Ying Loy (Baru, Kulaijaya, Malaysia) tied with teammate Vivienne Chin (Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia) for eighth place in the tournament.
With this finish, Loy accounted for five top-10 finishes this season. These kind of accomplishments landed her a spot on the All-Conference Team, as well as the All-Freshman Team in the SoCon.
Chin, the only senior on the team, was also awarded a spot on the All-Conference Team.
The men’s team competed in the SoCon Championships in Pinehurst, North Carolina, earlier this week, and it is now preparing for the NCAA Regionals May 16-18.
Like the women’s team, the Bucs have had great finishes, such as first place at the Greenbrier Invitational later in the season and lower finishes at the start of the season.
Senior Adrian Meronk (Wroclaw, Poland) has shined this season, earning SoCon Golfer of the Week three times, the most recent being last week. This is the fourth time in his career at ETSU that he has won the honor. This makes him the fifth player in the conference to ever win the award that many times.
This season, Meronk, who is ranked No. 17 nationally, has finished in the top 10 in nine of his last 10 outings, and in the SoCon Tournament, he clinched the championship with his final putt.
Not only that, but his performance earned him SoCon Player of the Year for the second year in a row.
Gudmundur Kristjansson (Reykjavik, Iceland) and Mateusz Gradecki (Oborniki Slaskie, Poland) also placed in the top 10, along with Meronk, in the tournament. Kristjansson tied for 10th place, and Gradecki tied for fifth. Gradecki lead ETSU at the start of the tournament individually.
The men’s golf team has now won back-to-back championships at the SoCon Tournament and looks forward to taking this win and confidence into the NCAA Regionals. The Bucs hope to come up with another win at the NCAA Championship at the end of May.
