PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville men's golf team hopes that the third time will be the charm this week in Florida, as the Valiants look to make the cut for the first time at the 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships, which will take place at the Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., beginning on Tuesday.
 
After earning back-to-back Freedom Conference titles in 2010 and 2011, the Valiants made it three in a row at the Freedom Conference Championships with a dominating performance on April 28-29, winning the program's seventh conference title in 13 varsity seasons with a dominating 55-stroke triumph. Manhattanville had a very impressive weekend at Hershey Country Club, as the defending champions took five of the top six spots at the end of the weekend.
 
Junior Nick Sica (Staten Island, N.Y./Avon Old Farms) led the way with individual medalist honors, earning himself a second straight All-Conference first-team honor in addition to Player of the Year recognition. He was joined on the All-Freedom first team by graduate student Lem Randall (Yellowknife, N.W.T./Joseph H. Kerr), senior Mike Cresci (Belvedere, Calif./Stuart Hall) and junior Gonzalo Sanchez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/Wesleyan Academy), while graduate student George Tischler (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) took sixth place to earn second-team honors as well.
 
For the third straight year, the Valiants are on pace to set a new program record for single-season scoring average, as the team enters the NCAAs by averaging 309.38 strokes per round and has finished in the top-five in nine of their 11 invitationals so far this year. Three Valiants currently have scoring averages that would rank in the top-six for a single season, and those three – Tischler, Sica and Cresci – have combined for 19 top-10 and 27 top-20 finishes already this year. In total, the team has recorded 35 top-20 finishes individually this season.
 
Following the Freedom Conference Championship title, Manhattanville has won three tournament titles in a season for the first time ever, joining the wins at the Hamilton Fall Invitational and the Manhattanville/NYU Fall Classic from the fall. Seven of the top 11 lowest single rounds in program history have also been carded just this season alone, including the program-record score of 294 at the Trinity (Conn.) Invitational on September 10, while also carding a program-record two-day score of 600 both at Trinity and Williams.
 
Individually, Tischler has been superb for Manhattanville this year after three years away from the program, as he enters the week with a 76.2 scoring average that currently ranks second for a single-season at the school. He has posted nine top-20 finishes in 10 appearances this year and posted three of the team's four sub-par rounds in 2011-12, including a program-record 69 on the way to individual medalist honors at the Hamilton Fall Invitational. His career 76.26 scoring average currently ranks second in program history.
 
Sica has also made a major impact on the program in his first year with the Valiants, ranking second on the team and fifth on the school's single-season list by averaging 76.8 strokes per round in 10 events this year. The reigning Freedom Conference Player of the Year, Sica earned his sixth top-10 and eighth top-20 finish of the season at Hershey, and finished the year with a first-place and sixth-place finish in his last three spring events.
 
Cresci has had yet another excellent season on the course for Manhattanville, and enters the tournament with a 77.6 scoring average as the only Valiant to play in all 11 events this year. A four-time All-Conference honoree and 2010 All-Region performer, Cresci has finished in the top-20 in 10 of his 11 appearances this year and has six top-10s as well. In his decorated Valiant career, Cresci has averaged 78.7 strokes in a program-record 78 rounds.
 
Randall has come on strong in recent weeks to cement his spot in the starting five, posting a 156 at Skidmore and following up with a season-best two-day score of 152 at the Freedom Championships that earned him a share of second place overall. On the year, the graduate student is averaging 81.1 strokes per round in eight events and looks to for a return to his 2010-11 form, when he averaged 78.6 strokes per round.
 
Another player who has been playing his best golf of the year recently is Sanchez, who has posted back-to-back weekends of 155 and earned his first career All-Conference honor with a fourth-place finish at the Freedom Championships. He has carded four straight rounds in the 70s after two in his first 11 rounds of the year, and looks to play at a higher level than his 82.1 strokes per round average might portend.
 
The Valiants will be in the unique situation of kicking off the championship on Tuesday morning, as Manhattanville has the first round of tee times alongside Gustavus Adolphus and Husson on the El Campeon course beginning at 7 a.m. Conversely, the team should know what score will be needed the make the cut on Wednesday, as the schedule reverses and the Valiants head out as the last groupings on the Los Colinas course beginning at noon. The top 15 teams and top six individuals not on those teams make the cut and come back for the final two days of the event on Thursday and Friday.
 
For those unable to make the trip to Florida, fans will be able to follow the Valiants via live scoring, which will be available on NCAA.com on the day of the tournament. Head coach Nikhil Kumar also will be providing day-long scores and updates via the team's Twitter page, @mvillegolf.  

To view the official NCAA D-III Men's Golf Championship program, click here.