LeFante finishes second to pace golf team

By Michael Mack

The golf team came out of the gates strong as two Broncs were in the top five of 42 golfers after Monday, the first day of the St. Mary’s Invitational. Rider as a team was in third place but would falter on Tuesday, finishing the invitational in fifth place.
After the first two rounds on day one, the Broncs were sitting with a combined total of 622. This score put the team three shots out of second and 12 shots out of the lead.
Junior Brian Accorsini was tied for the lead out of 42 golfers after the first day. Accorsini shot a 78 in his first round and a 72 in his second for a total of 150.
“We played 36 holes on Monday, so that was a really long day, but I could have finished my first round a little better in the morning,” Accorsini said. “My second round on Monday was much better. I played pretty much the same all day but I finished the day with two birdies to shoot 72.”
Graduate student Eric LeFante shot a 74 and a 79 for a total of 153 on the first day, placing him in a tie for fourth and just three strokes behind the lead.

However, LeFante did not play to his own high standards.
“I was not happy with my rounds the first day. My putting cost me several strokes the first round and was the reason why I didn’t shoot a really good number,” LeFante said. “The second round was just terrible. I had a triple bogey and four bogeys. There wasn’t anything positive about the second round.”
Also for the Broncs, junior Jordan Wycoff shot an 82 and a 76 for a total of 158. This tied Wycoff for 13th and placed him eight strokes back from the lead. Senior Kevin Krecicki and sophomore Chris Wolak both shot a 164 and were tied for 32nd after the first day.
The second day proved to not be much better for the Broncs. As a team, the Broncs shot a 318 to bring their total to 940 for the three-round tournament. This score gave the team a fifth-place finish among the eight teams involved in the tournament.
“For a team effort we were all upset by the way we played,” Accorsini said. “This was a big week for us and we went into the tournament knowing that we should win and we ended up playing bad.”
While the team did not succeed as a whole, they did find some individual success. LeFante shot a 75 in the final round to bring his total to 228 in the three rounds.
“My third round started badly and I shot a 39 on the front nine,” he said. “I made nine straight pars the second nine which were my best nine holes of the tournament.”
This was good enough to place him second among the 42 golfers and just one stroke off the top score.
“I was frustrated that I finished one shot behind,” LeFante said. “But I was more frustrated that I wasn’t more aggressive on the greens the last nine holes of the third round.”
Accorsini shot a 79 in his final round, which brought his total to 229. This placed him in a tie for third at the end of the tournament. Rounding out the score for the Broncs, Wycoff shot a total of 239 placing him in a tie for 20th, while Wolak and Krecicki tied for 34th, both shooting a 249 total score.
Next up for the Broncs  are the MAAC Championships on Friday, April 30, in Celebration, Fla.