SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. - Lincoln Memorial University finished off a dominating performance by winning the 2013 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Golf Championship by 33 strokes over runner-up Wingate University at the Sevierville Golf Club's River Course.
The Railsplitters' Connor Froning led wire-to-wire to win the individual championship with a score of 209, tied for the second-best in tournament history and four shots better than runner-up Chandler Gruenemeier of Newberry.
Lincoln Memorial, which claimed its second SAC Tournament championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament, posted the low round in all three days and finished with a team total of 873 that was just nine strokes over par. The Railsplitters shot 297 in Tuesday's final round after opening the tournament with scores of 287 and 289. Their 54-hole score of 873 is tied with LMU's 2010 SAC Championship team for the fifth-best in tournament history.
Froning, who tied the tournament single-round record with a 64 in Sunday's first round, led by eight strokes heading into the final round but saw his lead cut to two after Gruenemeier finished with a five-under-par 67 on Tuesday. However, Froning birdied holes 16 and 18 to record a 54-hole total of 209, one stroke shy of the SAC record of 208 set in 2008 by Ben Lown of Newberry.
Gruenemeier led the tournament with 15 birdies and two eagles and was six strokes under par over the final two rounds. His 67 is tied for the seventh-best round in tournament history and his overall score of 213 equals the eighth-best result in SAC Tournament competition.
Wingate finished second at 906 after rounds of 301, 302 and 303, with the top five also consisting of Lenoir-Rhyne at 910, Carson-Newman at 916 and Tusculum at 922. Lenoir-Rhyne was the only team other than Lincoln Memorial to break 300 in a row, as the Bears shot 299 on Tuesday to gain one spot in the final standings.
Lincoln Memorial's Jamie Chapman was third at two-over-par 218, followed by Brian Denton of Wingate in fourth at 220 and Rand Wasson of LMU in fifth at 222. All five golfers were recognized as first-team All-Tournament.
The second-team All-Tournament honorees were Kim Koivu of Brevard and Jon Weiss of Newberry, both at 223, followed by Tyler Stone of Wingate in eighth at 224, Jonathan Kim-Moss of Carson-Newman in ninth at 225 and Brandon Squier of Lenoir-Rhyne in 10th place at 226.
The second five teams consisted of a tie for sixth between Brevard and Newberry at 928, with Catawba in eighth at 949, Anderson in ninth at 950 and Mars Hill in 10th place at 962.
Individually, AU's Sean Shelton (76-80-74=230) shared the 15th
spot, while John Moore (80-79-73=232) was two shots further back
and tied for 22nd. Arran Setro (76-79-78=233) tied for 24th, while
Payden Parrish (88-83-88=259) and Rob Warren (92-82-85=259) tied
for 45th.
