SELINSGROVE, Pa. – It is tough enough to repeat as conference champion, let alone winning the title six-straight times. But that’s the task facing the Susquehanna University golf team, which has won the Middle Atlantic Conference championship five-straight times and returns three starters from last season’s title team.
The 1999 Crusaders went on to make the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament for the third time in four years, finishing 16th for their highest placement ever.
Despite having over half of his starters back from last season, 11th-year head coach Don Harnum knows the course to another conference championship and NCAA berth won’t be easy – particularly since he’ll be relying on three freshmen to fill in the lineup. The course begins Monday, March 20, as the team opens spring play at the York College Invitational.
“There are a lot of questions to be answered with a lot of people,” said Harnum, who has guided the Susquehanna program to six MAC championships overall. “It would appear that the key is what freshmen are going to step and play in the four and five spots.”
Harnum was forced to go to the freshmen in the fall schedule because juniors Hugh Leahy, III (Wilmington, Del./Archmere Academy) and Chris Scagliotti (Allentown/Emmaus H.S.) were studying in London, and sophomore Ryan Franks (Huntingdon/Huntingdon H.S.) missed three matches with an injured shoulder. While the team had some success with the newcomers, it may have slipped in its national profile because of the depleted lineup.
“I was playing all freshman most of the fall semester,” said Harnum. “They played like freshman but I think there are some very good golfers in that class. I’m expecting a much-improved performance in the spring.
“The pressure is on more than it has usually been. I am anxious about this spring. I am not as confident as I have been in the last few years. I don’t need five guys playing great all the time – I need four guys playing pretty well. If we can average a score of 315 for the spring, then we will have a chance to win a conference championship and get back to nationals.”
The veterans will continue to occupy the top spots this spring with Franks playing number-one, Scagliotti two, and Leahy three to start the season.
In just his first collegiate season in 1999, Franks finished third at the MAC Championships – just two strokes behind Leahy, and five behind champion and Susquehanna graduate Joe Rossi. He also tied Scagliotti for the team’s second-best score at nationals while placing 66th with a 72-hole total of 320. He had the squad’s low average of 80.0 last spring, and averaged 77.6 in limited action during the fall.
Scagliotti started for most of his freshman season, and his entire sophomore year – averaging 81.0 last spring.
Leahy followed a freshman campaign in which he was the MAC medallist by finishing second in the conference last season – missing the repeat by just three strokes with a 54-hole total of 240. He had the team’s lowest single-round score last spring with a two-over-par 72 at the Susquehanna Tee-Off Tournament, also averaging 80.5 for the season.
Freshmen Ryan Reid (Chambersburg/Chambersburg H.S.), Dan Wolf (Mt. Sinai, N.Y./Mt. Sinai H.S.) and Martin Kyper, III (Huntingdon/Huntingdon H.S.) will probably all see some varsity time this spring. Of the three, Reid will play fourth and shot a 73 at the Bucknell Invitational in the fall – going on to finish second on the team in stroke average at 80.4. Kyper is from Franks’ high school alma mater, and is pushing Wolf for the fifth spot.
Sophomore Neil Crowell (York,/West York H.S.) join freshmen Aaron Katyl (Dallas/Wyoming Seminary), and Richard Mackey (Rochester, N.Y./Brighton H.S.) to round out the Crusader roster.
