Villanova's Weaver, Abbracciamento share medalist honors with St. John's Kyriacou in LuLu Spring Invite

    Villanova’s Peter Weaver, a freshman from Frontenac, Mo., and Ambrose Abbracciamento, a graduate student from Newtown,  earned a share of medalist honors, each carding a solid 4-under-par 67 to lead the host Wildcats to a second-place finish in the LuLu Spring Invite Saturday at LuLu Country Club in Glenside.

   Villanova’s Big East rival St. John’s led the way in the four-team field that included a Villanova B team and La Salle with a 5-under 279 over the underrated 6,433-yard, par-71 LuLu layout. All three teams were denied the fall portion of the wraparound 2020-2021 season by the coronavirus pandemic and are looking for reps, or in the case of golf, swings, with the Big East Championship and the Atlantic 10 Championship for the Explorers just five weeks away.

   They caught a perfect day of weather to take on the challenging LuLu layout, reportedly the first course designed by the prolific and legendary Donald Ross in Pennsylvania, in a one-round shootout.

   St. John’s Alex Kyriacou, a sophomore from Suffern, N.Y., had six birdies, including three straight at the fourth, fifth and sixth holes, against two bogeys as he put up the first 4-under 67 of the day with Weaver and Abbracciamento still having an hour or so of golf left.

   Weaver got really hot in the middle of his round, making five of the seven birdies he recorded in a six-hole stretch. He made birdies at the sixth and seventh holes and then rattled off three a row at nine, 10 and 11, getting it to 5-under for the round. He dropped a shot with a bogey at the 13^th hole, but got it back to 5-under with a birdie at the par-5 17^th before closing with a bogey at the tough 18^th to finish at 4-under.

   Abbracciamento came home to the Philadelphia area for the fifth year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to make up for the spring of 2020 stolen by the pandemic for the final leg of a college golf tour that has included stops at Hartford and San Diego State. He made the last of his six birdies on the par-5 17^th hole to join his teammate Weaver and St. John’s Kyriacou at 4-under.

   Weaver and Abbraciamento helped Villanova’s top team finish second in the team standings with a 4-over 288 total, nine shots behind St. John’s. The four-team field enabled coaches to fill their starting lineups with six players rather than the normal five with the top four scores counting as usual.

   Villanova’s B team, led by Matt Minerva, a sophomore from Elmsford, N.Y. who finished in a tie for fourth place, two shots behind the three co-medalists at 2-under 69, finished in third place, 10 shots behind their fellow Wildcats with a 14-over 298 total.

   La Salle, led by Ron Fischang, a senior from McKinney, Texas, and Matt Werner, a junior from West Linn, Ore., finished 10 more shots behind Villanova’s B team with a 24-over 308 total. Fischang and Werner were among the group tied for 11^th place, each posting a 5-over 76 total.

   Backing up Kyriacou for St. John’s was Tyler Gerbavsits, a junior from Huntingdon, N.Y. who shared fourth place with Villanova’s Minerva at 2-under 69.

   The Red Storm had three more players among the top eight as Doug Beney, a freshman from Greenwich, Conn., matched par with a 71 to finish alone in sixth place, sophomore Gage Wolfle, a Clearview product from South Jersey, was seventh with a 1-over 72 and Jack Simon, a junior from Sparta, N.Y., ended up in a tie for eighth with a 2-over 73.

   Rounding out the St. John’s lineup was Ryan Rittberger, a sophomore from Greenlawn, N.Y. who finished among the group tied for 11^th place with a 5-over 76.

   Joining Simon in the tie for eighth place at 2-over was Seton Hall’s Peter Tyler Po, a junior from the Philippines who competed as an individual.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the individual standings was Villanova’s Reb Banas, the Wildcats’ veteran senior from Winnetka, Ill. who teed it up with their B team at LuLu and finished alone in 10^th place with a 3-over 74.

   Backing up Weaver and Abbracciamento for Villanova’s first six was Noah Price, a junior from Hunt Valley, Md. who joined the group tied for 11^th place with a 5-over 76.

   Senior Max Siegfried, a scholastic standout at The Haverford School, and Jonathan Elkins, a freshman from South Deerfield, Mass., finished among the group tied for 18^th place, each signing for a 7-over 78.

   Rounding out Villanova’s first six was junior Matt Davis, part of a powerful Inter-Ac League championship team as a sophomore at Malvern Prep in 2015 who finished alone in 26^th place with a 79. Siegfried and Davis are both products of the tremendous junior program at Aronimink Golf Club.

   Backing up Minerva and Banas for Villanova’s B team was Luke Alexander, a sophomore from Rochester, Minn. who finished among the group tied for 15^th place with a 77.  Jack O’Hara, a junior from Loudonville, N.Y., joined the group tied for 18^th place with a 78 and junior Danny Dougherty, a Tower Hill product, was alone in 27^th place with an 82.

   Backing up Fischang and Werner for La Salle were junior Parker Wine, who was a scholastic standout at Unionville, sophomore Karsen Rush, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a junior at Chambersburg in 2017, and sophomore Nikita Romanov, who starred at Mount Pleasant in Delaware and whose progress as a player I was able to see while reporting results from the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour, all of whom landed among the group tied for 18^th place, each carding a 7-over 78.

   Rounding out the La Salle lineup was senior David Kim, one of District One’s top players during his scholastic career at Upper Dublin who struggled to an 84 and finished in 28^th place.

   Kristian Fortis, a sophomore from Key Largo, Fla., competed as an individual for La Salle and finished in the group tied for 18^th place along with three of his fellow Explorers with a 78.