GREENSBORO, N.C. — Guilford College’s men’s golf team slipped two spots to sixth place in the first Golf World/Nike Golf Division III Coaches’ Poll of the spring season released Wednesday. The rankings were made by members of the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) and included tournaments through February 21.
Wittenberg College regained the top spot from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges by five points. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps earned seven first-place votes, while Wittenberg received two first-place nods. Redlands University, which defeated Claremont-Mudd Scripps last week, rounds out the top three with six first-place votes.
Oglethorpe University is fourth, 10 points ahead of St. John Fisher College and 12 in front of Guilford.
The Quakers opened the spring season earlier this week by winning the Pine Needles Intercollegiate in Southern Pines, N.C. Guilford won the seven-team tournament by 22 strokes and defeated Hampden-Sydney College, which is ranked 14th in the new poll.
Junior Nick Shedd owns the team’s low scoring average (73.00) thanks to consecutive first-place finishes at the Pine Needles Intercollegiate and last October’s Jensen-O’Briant Memorial. Freshman Tanner Gross (Archdale, N.C./Homeschool) is close behind Shedd with a 73.83 stroke average over 12 rounds. Junior Drew Thompson (896, 12 rounds) has a one-stroke lead over Dallas Page (Reidsville, N.C./Rockingham County (Averett)) (897, 12 rounds) in the battle for third place among the team’s scoring leaders.
Fourth-year head coach Corey Maggard’s squad is ranked fourth in the latest Golfstat.com Division III Relative Rankings. The Quakers are back in action March 10-11 at the TaylorMade-Adidas Intercollegiate in Dataw Island, S.C.
Mar. 3 Golf World/Nike Division III Coaches’ Poll
School (First-place votes) Points Last 1. Wittenberg (2) 393 2 2. Claremont-Mudd Scripps (7) 388 1 3. Redlands (6) 378 6 4. Oglethorpe 360 3 5. St. John Fisher (1) 350 5 6. Guilford 348 4 7. LaGrange (1) 312 7 8. Illinois Wesleyan 304 8 T9. La Verne 264 9 T9. Transylvania 264 11 11. Methodist 251 10 12. Texas-Tyler 225 12 13. California Lutheran 187 15 14. Hampden-Sydney 185 18 15. Greensboro 179 13