Playing against many of the best teams in Division II, the Lee men's golf team walked away from the Watson Course with a top-10 finish in the NCAA DII National Preview.
After posting rounds of 299 and 280 during Monday's opening 36 holes, the Flames finished the final 18 on Tuesday with a 286 for a 54-hole total of 865 and an eighth-place finish in a field of 18 quality teams.
First-place honors went to Lynn University (845). Florida Southern (849), West Florida (855), Missouri-St.
Louis (859), Barry (Fla.) (861), Saint Leo (861), and Florida Tech (862) finished in front of the Flames.
Shea Sylvester fired his third straight round of 69 and his (9-under) 207 was good enough for a fourth-place finish. "Shea has obviously had a lot of good tournaments here, but I think this was his most complete 54 holes," praised Lee head coach John Maupin. "He played well, and a top 5 finish just confirms what we already knew, he's one of the top players in the country."
Florida Southern's John Coultas and John VanDerLann joined Saint Leo's Hugo Bernard in a deadlock for medalist honors at 205, and leaving Sylvester two strokes off the pace.
The remainder of the Lee golfers were consistent. Sophomore Matt Johnson tallied a 73 on Tuesday and totaled 219. Junior Corey Sheppard played 1-under-par golf (71) and his two-day total was 220. Senior Adam Wright had a 74, good enough for a 221 and Dylan Lillard came in with a 73 on Tuesday and a 54-hole total of 222.
"I was really proud of how we competed over the last 36 holes," said Maupin. "This was a true national championship field and we held our own. We need to do a better job of starting these tournaments with a sense of urgency-that first round just put us in a bad spot.
"Today was close to being a really good round," Maupin added. "We just finished on some tough holes (shotgun start) and lost a little bit of the momentum we had gained earlier. It was still a solid round and I was happy to see us make a run up the leader board earlier in the day.
"We have a lot of guys playing some good golf," the coach stressed. "I feel really good about where we are as a team. This tournament provides great feedback for us and will really help us moving forward."
The Flames will close out the fall portion of their schedule on Oct. 17-18 when they travel to Florence, Ala. to take part in the TVA Credit Union Classic.
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