Seton Hall finishes second at UNF Challenge and suddenly the college gofl season is over

   It was at the beginning of 2016 when my career as a professional journalist came to a crashing halt.

   I had started a blog as a supplement to my golf coverage in the Delaware County Daily Times. I figured I might as well try to keep it going, see if I could find enough stuff to fill a few posts here and there.

   Somehow there’s always been time, so I’m guessing some higher power wanted me to do this, perhaps the golf gods taking a break from making your birdie putt turn out of the cup on the last revolution.

   One of the things I figured I could do was follow some of the Delco kids and some other names from the District One and PIAA scenes I had covered at the Daily Times as they embarked on their college careers. And a funny thing happened. I got hooked on college golf.

   That’s why I was more than a little heartbroken as the dominoes started to fall these last couple of days. Conferences calling off spring sports. And then the killer Thursday, the NCAA cancelling all the spring championships.

   I was almost happy to see an event that I had missed in what had been a busy few days -- turned out it was the final few days of the wraparound 2019-2020 season -- when I checked in to see if Seton Hall had anything coming up that might or might not still be on.

   Turns out, the Hall teed it up in the UNF Challenge, hosted by North Florida, which wrapped up Tuesday at the Jacksonville Golf & Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla.

   As much as I got hooked on the big names in college golf, men and women, I thoroughly enjoyed following programs like Seton Hall.

   I was at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in the fall of 2015, covering Radnor High’s Brynn Walker as she won her second straight PIAA Class AAA championship in what turned out to be the final days of my time at the Daily Times. The runnerup that day was Owen J. Roberts senior Maddie Sager, wrapping up a pretty strong scholastic career of her own.

   I was back at Heritage Hills a year later, this time as a blogger, watching Peters Township senior Mia Kness battle it out with Conestoga’s Samantha Yao, Central York’s Julianne Lee and Pine Richland’s Lauren Freyvogel and claim the PIAA Class AAA crown.

   Kness would join Sager and Coatesville’s Sammie Staudt, a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier herself, as the building blocks of the Seton Hall program. Somewhere along the line, Sager’s dad Ed, having found my blog, reached out to me to keep me updated on how the Pirates were doing.

   As much as college golf is about the future PGA and LPGA stars playing at the big programs, it is still very much about the Maddie Sagers, the Sammie Staudts, the Mia Knesses. Playing on the LPGA Tour might not be in their future, but they are good players, they have battled hard and it’s been fun to watch their progress these last four years.

   Kness, a junior, Caroline Ronchel Salas, a senior from Spain, and Ronchel Salas’ classmate Staudt, all fired a final round of 1-under-par 71 over the 5,926-yard, par-72 Jacksonville Golf & Country Club layout as Seton Hall posted the best team round of the tournament, an even-par 288, in Tuesday’s final round and surged to a second-place finish, just four shots behind host North Florida.

   They didn’t know it at the time, but it was the final round of the season for Seton Hall and for Ronchel Salas and Staudt, the final round of their college careers.

   For Lizzie Winn, a senior from Sylvania, Ohio, and Sager, the final round of the UNF Challenge was also the final round of their college careers.

   Win carded a solid 3-over 75 and finished in a tie for eighth place at 7-over 223. It was her 17^th career top-10 finish, tying the program record. It is a deadlock she won’t get a chance to break.

   Sager’s final-round 76 was a throw-out for Seton Hall, but she has been so solid in the Pirates’ lineup ever since she arrived in North Jersey in the fall of 2016.

   I’m certain head coach Natalie Desjardins, who took over the Seton Hall program a year after Staudt, Sager, Win and Ronchel Salas arrived on the scene, was happy to have to have this rock-solid class around for the last three years.

   North Florida, at No. 68 in the latest Golfstat rankings, the highest-ranked team in the field, took control of the tournament during Monday’s double-round, opening with a 10-over 298 and adding a solid 3-over 291 that gave the Ospreys a four-shot lead over Sam Houston State. North Florida closed with an 11-over 299 in Tuesday’s final round for a 24-over 888 total as the Ospreys won the team title in their home event for the second straight year.

   Seton Hall struggled a little in Monday’s double-round, registering rounds of 12-over 300 and 16-over 304 and trailed North Florida by 15 shots. But the Pirates’ final-round surge enabled them to finish second at 28-over 892.

   Sam Houston State posted rounds of 295 and 298 in Monday’s double-round before falling back a little in the final round with a 303 that left the Bearkats four shots behind Seton Hall in third place at 32-over 896.

   It was another 14 shots back to South Alabama in fourth place at 46-over 910. The Jaguars opened with a 301 and added a 305 in Monday afternoon’s second round before closing with a 304.

   Western Kentucky was three shots behind South Alabama in fifth place at 49-over 313, the Hilltoppers closing with a solid 298.

   Delaware, which finished in sixth place, a shot behind Western Kentucky at 50-over 914, is similar to Seton Hall. Seton Hall and Delaware aren’t going to win a national championship. But the Pirates and Blue Hens are very competitive in the Big East and Colonial Athletic Association, respectively, and winning a conference championship and earning an NCAA regional berth is the goal at the beginning of every season.

   Delaware opened with a 301 and added a 308 in Monday afternoon’s second round before closing with a 305.

   Leading the way for North Florida was Teresa Conway, a senior from Tallahassee, Fla. who finished alone in third place at 3-over 219, two shots behind Cal State-Fullerton’s Brittany Shin, a freshman from Cape Coral, Fla., and Delaware’s Ariane Klotz, a senior from New Caledonia, both of whom finished atop the leaderboard at 1-over 217, Shin being awarded the individual title on a scorecard  playoff.

   Conroy shared the individual lead with Klotz following Monday’s double-round after matching par in the opening round with a 72 and adding a 2-under 70 in the afternoon. She backed off in the final round with a 77. Pretty good effort for Conroy in what proved to be the final event of her college career.

   Backing up Conroy for the Ospreys was a pair of juniors, Mindy Herrick of Gainesville, Fla, and Sara McKevitt of Ponte Vedra, Fla., both of whom landed among a large group tied for 10^th place at 8-over 224. Herrick matched par in the final round with a 72. McKevitt was solid in Monday’s double-round with an opening-round 74 before matching par in the afternoon with a 72. She struggled to a 78 in the final round.

   Sydney Shrader, a senior from Naples, Fla., also closed strongly, matching par in the final round with a 72 to land among the group tied for 20^th place at 227. Rounding out the North Florida lineup was Liss Davalos, a sophomore from Mexico who closed with a 78 to end up in the group tied for 38^th place at 232.

   It was the premature end of a stellar career for Delaware’s Klotz, who carded a pair of 1-under 71s in Monday’s double-round to share the lead with North Florida’s Conroy at 2-under 142. Cal State-Fullerton’s Shin caught Klotz with a final round of 1-over 73 while Klotz carded a 75 as they both landed on 1-over 217.

   South Alabama’s Siti Shaari, a junior from Malaysia, and Sam Houston State’s Hanna Alberto, a senior from Kingwood, Texas, finished a shot behind North Florida’s Conroy in a tie for fourth place at 4-over 220.

   Shaari sandwiched a 76 in Monday afternoon’s second round with a pair of even-par 72s. Alberto was just two shots out of the individual lead after following up an opening round of 1-under 71 with a 73 in Monday’s double-round, but closed with a 76.

   Seton Hall’s Kness closed out her junior season by finishing in a tie for sixth place at 5-over 221 with Jessica Bailey, a sophomore from Finland at junior college power Daytona State College.

   Kness had opened with a 1-over 73, but struggled to a 77 in Monday afternoon’s second round. Her closing 1-under 71 gave Kness the ninth top-10 finish of her outstanding career at the Hall. Bailey added a final-round 73 to the pair of 2-over 74s she carded in Monday’s double-round.

   Win’s final-round 75 came on the heels of a pair of 2-over 74s in Monday’s double-round, the kind of consistent performance Seton Hall came to expect from her.

   Sharing eighth place with Win at 7-over 223 was Georgia Southern’s Ella Ofstedahl, a senior from England who closed with the best round of the day in Tuesday’s final round, a 2-under 70.

   Backing up Klotz for Delaware was Thitaree Sakulbunpanich, a junior from Thailand who finished among the group tied for 25^th place at 228. Sakulbunpanich opened with a 76 and added a 77 before finishing up with her best round of the tournament, a 3-over 75.

   Lene Sperling, a freshman from Germany, opened with a 76 and struggled to an 81 in Monday afternoon’s second round before closing with a 78 as she finished in the group tied for 44^th place at 235.

   Lexi Dart, a freshman from England, and Isabella Rimton, a senior from Sweden, both landed on 238 in the group tied for 55^th place.

   Dart had her best round of the tournament, a 5-over 77, in Tuesday’s final round. Rimton added a pair of 79s to her opening-round 80 to close out her career at Delaware.

   Seton Hall’s Big East rival Georgetown finished in 13^th place in the 16-team field at 945. The Hoyas’ best round was a 309 in Monday afternoon’s second round.

   Esther Park, Georgetown’s standout freshman out of the Charter School of Wilmington, and senior Kate Evanko, a contemporary of both Sager and Staudt as a scholastic standout at Unionville, both landed among the group tied for 68th place at 244.

   Park carded rounds of 80 and 81 in Monday’s double-round before closing with an 83. In what turned out to be the final round of her college career, Evanko carded a solid 4-over 76.

   I will actually miss trying to round up all the conference championships, men’s and women’s, that I’ve tried to get to these last few springs. I will miss trying to round up four women’s NCAA regionals one week and six men’s NCAA regionals the next week.

   And I will certainly miss watching it all come to a dramatic conclusion, first at the women’s NCAA Championship and then at the men’s NCAA Championship, scheduled to be held this spring at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   Two years ago, in Desjardins’ first year at the helm at Seton Hall, the Pirates finished 20 shots behind Georgetown in second place in the Big East Championship at the Callawassie Island Golf Club in Okatie, S.C.

   Seton Hall was 53 shots better than the Hoyas in Jacksonville. Just a measuring stick in how far the Pirates have come as their senior class kept working, kept getting better.

   They thought this was their year, but they won’t get that opportunity. And it’s a shame.