Nicholas claims individual title, leads Drexel to team crown in City 6 Championship for the third time in a row at Tavistock

    Results from Sunday’s City 6 Championship at Tavistock Country Club in Haddonfield, N.J. have been hard to come by, but I do know that Drexel, behind medalist Drue Nicholas, a junior from Egg Harbor Township, N.J., claimed the team title for the third straight playing.

   Nicholas has been the best player in the city during the fall portion of the wraparound 2022-2023 season and he led the way over a bit of a watered-down City 6 field with a sparkling 3-under-par 69. There’s been some dicey weather over the years for the City 6, but the four of the city’s six college teams that gathered in Haddonfield, N.J. at Tavistock drew a perfect fall day for golf.

   There was some indication of the solid fall to come for Nicholas when he outlasted Michael R. Brown Jr. in a playoff to capture the Patterson Cup, a Golf Association of Philadelphia major championship, in August at St. Davids Golf Club.

   I chronicled Nicholas’ solid runnerup finish in the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate at Kilmaric Golf Club in Powells Point, N.C. in a recent post. It was Nicholas’ second straight strong showing at Kilmaric as he earned medalist honors a year ago.

   Nicholas, a junior phenom at the Jersey Shore and a product of St. Augustine Prep, finished in tie a for third place in last year’s City 6 Championship by matching par at Llanerch Country Club with a 71 and helping the Dragons capture the team crown.

   Penn had stopped including the City 6 on its schedule a few years ago and the Quakers were joined as an absentee this fall by Temple. College schedules can be a complicated thing, but I still think the City 6 on a Saturday or Sunday after most of the fall college tournaments are over at one of the Philadelphia area’s classic golf courses should be an easy fit.

   The fact that I couldn’t locate results for the City 6, other than roundups on the Drexel and Villanova websites, would seem to indicate that the interest level in the event might be waning. There have been times in the past when teams outside the Philadelphia area have been added to flesh out the City 6 Championship field. So, there is precedent for changing things up for the tournament.

   Nicholas’ strong showing helped Drexel, which plays out of the Colonial Athletic Association, finish with a 9-under 279 team total.

   Villanova, out of the Big East, finished 19 shots behind the Dragons in second place with a 10-over 298 total. Saint Joseph’s, an Atlantic 10 Conference representative, finished in third place, seven shots behind the Wildcats with a 305. La Salle, another A-10 entry, finished fourth, but I can’t locate a team total for the Explorers.

   Drexel had three players finish a shot behind Nicholas, each carding a solid 2-under 70 at Tavistock. That trio included Tafadzwa Nyamukondiwa, a junior from Zimbabwe, Griffin Mitchell, a junior from New Albany, Ohio, and Brockton English, a sophomore from Shelby Township, Mich.

   Villanova was led by Ryan Pamer, a freshman from Hudson, Ohio and Peter Weaver, a junior from Frontenac, Mo., both of whom carded a 1-over 73.

   Pamer has been Villanova’s best player this fall, making a splash in his college debut over the Labor Day weekend with a runnerup finish in the Alex Lagowitz Memorial at Seven Oaks Golf Club in Hamilton, N.Y.

    Villanova’s two other counting scores were a 2-over 74 by Jason Lohwater, a graduate student from Rochester, N.Y., and a 6-over 78 by Kyle Kinnane, a graduate student from Anaheim Hills, Calif.

   Leading a trio of Wildcats competing as individuals at Tavistock was Joshua Lavely, a freshman from Kewadin, Mich. who recorded a 9-over 81 to finish in a tie for 24^th place.

   Vimal Alokam, a sophomore from Ypsilanti, Mich., signed for an 82 and finished in a tie for 27^th place. Matt Minerva, a senior from Elmsford, N.Y., finished in 35^th place with an 86.