Clutch Shots Propel Spiders to Fifth at A-10 Championship

Friday, April 26

Orlando, FL

8:15 AM

University of Richmond

Atlantic 10 Championship

Richmond men's golf team puts their arms around each other and poses for a picture next to the 18th green

Clutch Shots Propel Spiders to Fifth at A-10 Championship

04/28/2024 | Men's Golf

Results

ORLANDO, Fla. — With the help of a couple of late chip-ins, the Richmond Spiders men's golf team rallied to a fifth-place finish at the Atlantic 10 Championship Sunday at Grand Cypress Golf at Evermore Resort.

On Richmond's final shot of the tournament, junior Cole Ekert holed out from 25 feet behind the green to make birdie, thrilling the large crowd of teammates and Spider fans surrounding the 18^th green.

"It was awesome. We had all our boys standing there," said Ekert. "Coach [Decker] turned to me and said 'Why don't you hole this one for the crowd?' And I was able to do it, so it was a really cool way to end a great week."

Ekert shot a 2-under 70 Sunday, the lowest round by a Spider in the event, and finished tied for fifth on the individual leaderboard at even par (216). He is the first Spider to finish in the top five at the A-10 Championship since 2017, when Zack Justice and Andrew Sciarretta tied for second.

"[Cole was] really steady for us again," said Spiders coach Adam Decker. "He's for sure one of the, if not the, best players in the conference. He showed it today. He's for sure got a bright future ahead and will be our go-to guy next year."

"This is the biggest tournament of the year for us, and to play well here is definitely reassuring," said Ekert. "I knew if I could get back to even for the tournament I'd have a good chance at a high finish. So that was my goal all day and I just chipped away on that back nine."

Ekert's hole-out came minutes after freshman Jack LaPiana sunk a long chip-in from 30 feet behind the green on the par-3 17^th hole. LaPiana played his final five holes in 4-under par to shoot an even-par 72. He finished the event tied for 14^th at 4-over par (220).

Fellow freshman Quin Polin narrowly missed out on a top-20 finish, tying for 21^st at 8-over par (224). It was Polin's third top-25 showing in four stroke play events this season.

"Both freshmen handled the pressure of the conference tournament really well," said Decker. "Jack's a real competitor. I think you saw that at the end of his round today. He got over par early and then really fought hard to not give up a shot. It was the same with Quin. I feel we've got a good group coming back and they kind of have a feel for what the conference tournament's like and they'll know a little more of what to expect going forward."

Sophomore Drew Carlin played his final six holes in four under par to finish at 12-over par for the event (228), tied for 34^th. Grad student Lou Baker was two shots back at 14-over par (230) in a tie for 39^th.

Richmond's team score of 3-over (291) Sunday was the fourth best in the field, six shots better than UR's Round 2 on Saturday and eight shots better than the team's Round 1 on Friday. Richmond's 23-over total of 887 was four shots behind fourth-place Dayton and seven clear of sixth-place George Mason.

"I just feel that the guys did a good job of really wanting to compete today," said Decker. "They know they're one of the best teams in the conference and wanted to show that we can compete here and to get us up the leaderboard as high as we could. We had a goal of getting into the top three. We came up a little short, but I think we feel that we know that we can compete. We just need to get off to a little better start."

This is 18^th time in Decker's 18 full seasons the Spiders have finished in the top five at the A-10 Championship.

After the event, Ekert and Baker were among the 10 golfers named to the A-10's All-Conference team for their performances during the course of the season. It's the second All-Conference honor for Baker and the third for Ekert, who joined Matthew Lowe as the only Spiders to ever earn All-Atlantic 10 honors in three or more seasons.