April 14, 2008
PRINCETON, N.J. - Freshman Colin List (Boynton Beach, Fla.) continued an outstanding spring season by earning team medalist honors this weekend at the Princeton Invitational. List tied for 21st place in the field of 77 golfers, while Villanova finished 14th out of 15 in the team standings.
List has now played in four of the five tournaments the Wildcats have competed in this spring and has been the team medalist on three occasions. This weekend at the Springdale Golf Club (par-71, 6,390 yards) he fired scores of 72-74-74=220 (+7) and lowered his stroke average for the spring season to 74.50.
Freshman Conor Casey (Madison, N.J.) and junior Paul Sjoberg (Thief River Falls, Minn.) each were tied for 65th place in the field with a total score of 233 (+20). Casey carded rounds of 74-75-84 and Sjoberg shot 76-76-81 in the tournament. Junior Andrew Alexander (Rochester, Minn.) tied for 75th place with scores of 80-76-81=237 (+24).
A fifth Wildcat, junior Doug Stadler (Wexford, Pa.) contributed counting rounds to the team score in the first and third rounds of the tournament but was issued a disqualification in the second round and did not qualify for the overall individual standings. Stadler posted a 72 in the opening round and a 76 on Sunday over the final 18 holes. His score was a part of the team total in each round.
This weekend's tournament was contested over 54 holes, with two rounds of golf played on Saturday and one on Sunday. In the opening round on Saturday morning, Villanova posted its best team score of the spring with a round of 294 (+10). List and Stadler each shot 72 for the round, while Casey carded a 74 and Sjoberg a 76.
The weather changed drastically between the first and second days of play, as Saturday's two rounds were played in sunny and warm temperatures with low winds. Sunday turned nearly 20 degrees colder with gusty winds that affected play and created some parity in the individual standings.
In a field of 77 golfers, only 28 strokes separated first place from last place in the individual standings. Keegan Bradley and Evan Beirne of St. John's shared individual title honors with cumulative scores of 211 (-2). St. John's won the team championship by four strokes over George Mason and Princeton.
The Wildcats next play in the Navy Spring Invite this coming Saturday.
NOTES: List has now played in 20 rounds total for Villanova this season, with 10 rounds in the fall and 10 in the spring ... He has lowered his stroke average from 77.2 in the fall to 74.5 in the spring and has now taken over the team's overall lead for the year with a 75.85 stroke average ... The three-round total of 233 (+20) was a career-best for 54 holes for Sjoberg in terms of both actual score and relative to par ... He lowered his season stroke average by more than two strokes with his play this weekend.
