Men’s Golf Finishes Third at NECC Championship, Cowles Named NECC Coach of the Year

LITCHFIELD, N.H. – Elms College senior Phil Rurak (Wilbraham, Mass.) carded a second round score of 76 and finished the two-day event in second place overall while the Blazers shot a 310 for the second straight day to come in third place during Sunday's final round of the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship at Passaconaway Country Club and hosted by Daniel Webster College.

Blazers' head coach Craig Cowles was selected as the NECC's Coach of the Year by his peers at the conclusion of the event, while Becker College earned the conference's Team Sportsmanship Award.

Adam Ziewancz (Simsbury, Conn.) captured individual Medalist honors and earned conference rookie of the year accolades firing a tournament low 146 over two rounds including a final-round best 73 to finish four over par helping Springfield College capture the NECC crown.

The Pride returned to winners circle in the NECC for the first time since winning the inaugural conference crown in 2008 and will represent the league in the NCAA Division III Championship next spring.

Two strokes was the difference as Springfield garnered a two-day score of 613 on the par-71 course which covered 6,855 yards. The Pride edged defending champion Babson College, which finished at 615, while Elms College was just seven strokes off the pace finishing at 620.

The field rounded out with Newbury College (656), Becker College (668), the host Eagles (702) and Mitchell College (753).

Ziewancz edged out tourney runner-up Rurak, who shot a 76 to finish 149 overall and +7 for the weekend, while Babson's Wesley Tryhane (Stamford, Conn.) took third carding a 74 to finish at 150 (+8).

The top five – who all earned First Team All-NECC honors - also included junior Henry Fall (Harpswell, Maine) of Elms who was fourth (75-76-151, +9) and Vijay Vasandani (Cebu, Philippines) of Babson (73-79-152, +10).

Second Team All-NECC selections included the sixth through 10^th place finishers including (in order) Tim Vollaro (Somers, Conn.) of Springfield, Kyle DiFranco (East Longmeadow, Mass.) of Springfield, Adam Navarro (Stoneham, Mass.) of Newbury, Kenny Chong (N. Bergen, N.J.) of Babson, Chris Vincent (Norwich, Conn.) of Springfield and Chris Maguire (Waltham, Mass.) of Babson.

Elms is back in action at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 20-21.