Tuesday-Wednesday Results

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. – Led by a stellar round of 71 by junior Nick Sica (Staten Island, N.Y./Avon Old Farms), the Manhattanville men's golf team improved its day-two score by 20 strokes to move into sole possession of 29th place after day two of the 2012 NCAA Div. III Championships, held at Mission Inn Resort & Club.
 
Playing on the par-72, 6,895-yard Las Colinas course on Wednesday, the Valiants shot a round of 306, the 17th best round of the day, to put the squad at 632 for the first two days of the event. Despite the improvement, Manhattanville finished 30 strokes off the cut line to finish the championship in 29th position, five spots higher than yesterday's finish.
 
The round of the day belonged to Sica, who carded the second under-par round in postseason competition in program history with his career-best 71 (-1) to give him a two-day score of 154. He was one of only 18 players (out of 209 competitors) to break par on Wednesday, and only seven players had scores lower than the reigning Freedom Conference Player of the Year on the day. He cut his place on the leaderboard in half from 164th after day one to 82nd after day two thanks to his 12-stroke improvement, a difference bettered by only six players.
 
Sica had a solid front nine for Manhattanville, posting two birdies to counter two bogies and giving him an even-par 35 at the turn. He started the round right with a birdie three at the par-four 1st, and got himself to two-under with a birdie at the par-five 5th before bogies on the 7th and 9th. He started the back nine with a bogey on 10 to go over par for the first time all day, but that lasted just two holes before a four on the par-five 12th got him back to even. The junior parred the next five holes before finishing with a flourish, birdieing the 18th hole to post the first sub-par round of his career.
 
Manhattanville's best score of the tournament belonged not to Sica but to graduate student George Tischler (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich), who carded a round of 76 (+4) on Wednesday to give him a two-day score of 153 that tied him for 69th place. He had an up-and-down front nine, beginning with a bogey on the 2nd and a triple on the par-four 4th that put him at four-over after four. Back-to-back birdies at the par-five 5th and the par-three 6th got him back to two-over, but a double at the 9th gave him a 39 at the turn. He was very steady on the back nine after a bogey in the 10th, carding seven straight pars before also finishing his first NCAA Championship appearance with a birdie four on the closing hole.
 
Senior Mike Cresci (Belvedere, Calif./Stuart Hall) also completed his Valiant career with a bounce-back round on day two, finishing with a 76 (+4) to finish the weekend at 161 (T-141st place). Cresci was consistent over the first nine holes on Wednesday, ceding only bogies on the 2nd, 4th and 8th holes to make the turn with a three-over 38. He had only two more bogies on the back nine on 11 and 12 before continuing the trend of final-hole heroics with a birdie of his own on the final hole of his decorated Valiant career.
 
Another Valiant concluding his career this week was graduate student Lem Randall (Yellowknife, N.W.T./Joseph H. Kerr), who carded an 83 on Wednesday to finish in a tie for 161st place at 164. Randall avoided any big numbers over the first nine holes, and yet five bogies and a double put him at 42 after the front nine. On the back nine, he had four bogies and parred the remaining five holes to complete his round.
 
Junior Gonzalo Sanchez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/Wesleyan Academy) rounded out the Valiant entries with an 89 on day two, putting him at 175 for the championship. After a rocky front nine yesterday, Sanchez had a steady start to his day on Wednesday, parring five of the first seven holes before a triple bogey on the par-four 8th hole took away his momentum and gave him a 40 at the turn. The consistency continued to wane on the back nine, with four double bogies contributing to a 46 on the back side.
 
Manhattanville finishes arguably the most successful season in school history with a 309.96 team scoring average, which eclipses the previous school record set just last year. The Valiants also won three invitationals in a year for the first time ever and cruised to their seventh conference title in 13 varsity seasons with a 55-stroke win at the Freedom Conference Championships.