UConn captures team crown in return to Big East Championship; Villanova finishes fifth

    It was a hectic couple of months for Jim Wilkes and his Villanova golf team as they tried to jam a whole season of preparation into a few short weeks before the Big East Championship was held last week at the Streamsong Resort’s Blue Course, an acclaimed layout designed by Tom Doak in Bowling Green, Fla.

   For Big East schools, like so many around the country, the wraparound 2020-2021 season didn’t include the fall portion of the schedule with coronavirus pandemic concerns conspiring to prevent them from competing. The switch from the Big East’s usual championship site at the Calawassie Island Golf Club in Okatie, S.C. to Streamsong was necessitated by pandemic issues at Calawassie Island.

   But Villanova got in as many events as it could in a short period of time and the result was a fifth-place finish in the Big East Championship, which concluded last Wednesday. That’s an improvement of three spots from the last time the Big East Championship was contested at Calawassie Island in 2019. And it certainly beat the heck out of last spring when college golf was abruptly shut down by the pandemic in March.

   The team title went to a team that wasn’t even in the Big East the last time the league gathered for a championship two springs ago. That would be Connecticut, which returned to the Big East from the American Athletic Conference, which was a tough golf circuit in which to compete for a team from the Northeast.

   The Huskies claimed their first Big East title since 1994 with a solid 5-over-par 859 total over the tough 7,060-yard, par-72 Streamsong Blue layout. UConn had to survive a big challenge from Marquette, which claimed the conference crown at Calawassie Island two springs ago.

   But when the NCAA announces the fields for the six regionals Wednesday on The Golf Channel, it will be UConn that will hear its name called as the Big East representative.

   Behind a respective 3-4 finish by Jimmy Paradise, a freshman from Tampa, Fla., and Caleb Manuel, a freshman from Topsham, Maine, Connecticut opened with a 4-over 292 April 26, then took over the lead with a solid 3-under 285 in the second round last Tuesday. A closing 4-over 292 enabled the Huskies to withstand several runs from Marquette and claim the title at 5-over.

   Marquette, behind individual co-medalist Hunter Eichorn, a redshirt senior from Carney, Mich., opened with a solid 2-under 286 and fell two shots behind UConn with its second round of 5-over 293 before closing with an 8-over 296 that left the Golden Eagles five shots behind the Huskies in second place with an 11-over 875 total.

   It was another seven shots back to Seton Hall in third place with an 18-over 882 total as the Pirates added a 3-over 291 to their opening-round 296 before finishing up with a 295.

   Butler, behind co-medalist Michael Cascino, a senior from Palos Park, Ill., had taken the lead following an opening round of 3-under 285, but the Bulldogs fell back with a 301 in last Tuesday’s second round before closing with a 297 for a 19-over 883 total that left them a shot behind Seton Hall in fourth place.

   Villanova had its best round of the week in the opening round as the Wildcats opened with a 2-over 290. They backed off with a 299 in the second round before closing with a 298 to finish four shots behind Butler in fifth place in the nine-team field with a 23-over 887 total.

   Villanova was led by Noah Peck, a junior from Hunt Valley, Md. who has had a nice spring campaign. Peck solved Streamsong Blue to the tune of a 3-under 69 in the opening round before adding a pair of 75s that enabled him to sneak into the top 10 as he finished among a trio of players tied for 10^th place at 3-over 219.

   Paradise opened with a 1-under 71 and cooled off with a 75 in the second round before closing with a solid 4-under 68 to finish alone in third place, five shots behind Cascino and Eichorn at 2-under 214. Manuel was a shot behind his teammate in fourth place at 1-under 215 as he fired a sparkling 6-under 66, matching the low individual round of the week, in the second round after opening with a 74. He finished up with a 75.

   Jared Nelson, a junior from Rutland, Vt., gave the Huskies three finishers among the top nine as he ended up alone in ninth place with a 1-over 217 total. Nelson added a 1-under 71 to his opening-round 74 before matching par in the final round with a 72.

   Rodrigo Sanchez, a senior from the Dominican Republic, finished among the group tied for 18^th place for UConn as he contributed back-to-back 1-over 73s, both counters for the Huskies, in the first two rounds before finishing up with a 78.

   Rounding out the Connecticut lineup was Tommy Dallahan, a freshman from Simsbury, Conn. who landed in a tie for 30^th place at 229. Dallahan opened with a 2-over 74 and added a 78 in the second round before closing with a 77.

   Butler’s Cascino matched the low individual round of the week when he opened with a 6-under 66. He matched par in the second round with a 72 to take a one-shot lead over Marquette’s Eichorn, who had added a 71 to his opening round of 4-under 68. Eichorn, the Big East champion as a freshman at Calawassie Island in 2018, led Cascino by as many as three shots on the back nine in Wednesday’s final round, but Cascino caught Eichorn to force a playoff for the Big East individual title and an automatic bid to an NCAA regional as an individual.

   Cascino closed with a 1-under 71 while Eichorn finished up with a 2-under 70 as both landed on 7-under 209. It took three holes in the playoff, but Cascino captured the Big East’s individual crown.

   Two Seton Hall players, Andres Acevedo, a senior from San Antonio, Texas, and Gregor Tait, a senior from England, were joined by Butler’s Raymond Sullivan, a junior from Lemont, Ill., and Creighton’s Nate Vontz, a junior from Lincoln, Neb., in a four-way tie for fifth place at even-par 216.

   Acevedo opened with a 2-under 70 and added a 74 before matching par in the final round with a 72. His teammate, Tait, added a 73 to his opening-round 74 before closing with a solid 3-under 69. Sullivan opened with a 2-under 70 before adding a pair of 73s. Vontz matched par in the opening round with a 72 and added a 1-under 71 before closing with a 73.

   Villanova’s Peck was joined by DePaul’s Conor Glennon, a sophomore from England, and Marquette’s Nicholas Evangelio, a redshirt sophomore from Spain, in the three-way tie for 10^th place at 3-over 219, two shots behind UConn’s Nelson in ninth.

   After opening with a 75, Glennon carded a solid 2-under 70 in the second round before finishing up with a 74. Evangelio opened with a 73 before firing a sparkling 3-under 69 in the second round and closing with a 77.

   Backing up Peck for Villanova was Peter Weaver, a freshman from Frontenac, Md. who finished up a solid debut season with a final round of 1-under 71 that enabled him to finish in a tie for 13^th place at 4-over 220. Weaver added a 74 to his opening-round 75.

   Graduate student Ambrose Abbracciamento capped his one season with Villanova by finishing among the group tied for 23^rd place at 227. Abbracciamento added a 1-over 73 to his opening-round 74 before struggling in the final round with an 80.

   Villanova was the final chapter in a college golf journey for Abbracciamento, a Newtown, Bucks County native, that included stops at Hartford and San Diego State. Offered an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA to make up for the spring of his senior season lost to the pandemic, Abbracciamento chose to come home and take it at Villanova.

   Abbracciamento headed for the Big East Championship after celebrating an individual victory in the ABARTA Coca-Cola Collegiate Invitational, the annual two-day tournament hosted by Lehigh at the Steel Club in Hellertown. I never quite got around to doing a post on the ABARTA Coca-Cola event with all the golf being jammed into the April calendar. As I’ve mentioned before, given a choice between too much golf this spring and no golf at this time a year ago, I’m voting for too much golf every time.

   Abbracciamento added a sparkling 6-under 66 at the Steel Club to his opening-round 70 to claim the ABARTA Coca-Cola individual title by three shots with an 8-under 136 total. Abbracciamento’s individual victory led Villanova to a third-place finish with a 9-over 585 total, three shots behind runnerup Rider and 11 behind the host Mountain Hawks, who won the team crown.

   Senior Max Siegfried, who was a scholastic standout at The Haverford School, was a shot behind Abbraciamento in the group tied for 26^th place at 228 as he added a 77 to his opening-round 79 before matching par in the final round with a 72.

   Reb Banas, a senior from Winnetka, Ill., rounded out the Villanova lineup as he landed in a tie for 33^rd place at 234. Banas contributed an even-par 72 to the Wildcats’ good start in the opening round before adding an 82 in the second round and closing with an 80.

   Banas was in the lineup for the Big East Championship as a freshman at Calawassie Island in 2018 and has been a fixture in Wilkes’ lineup throughout his career on the Main Line.