Harrisburg, Pa. – The Penn State Harrisburg men's golf team played their best golf of the year at the time when it mattered most. After a long two days of intense competition, the Lions, led by Freshman Tyler Shank (Palmyra, Pa. / Palmyra Area) went home with a 7th straight top two finish in their conference championship Saturday April 19th.
The Lions started the day tied for second place with York College. Both teams were nine strokes behind first round leader Christopher Newport who shot an impressive 299 in day one. Harrisburg was on their home turf, but overcoming a nine stroke lead on the experienced Captains was not going to be an easy feat.
Harrisburg started out strong hoping for a shot at the championship, but with the goal of taking second place to keep their streak of finishing top two alive. Beating York would take some quality play. The Spartans were a strong squad that had won four tournaments this year, including beating the Lions at the Alvernia Invitational two weeks ago.
The Blue and White stayed composed throughout the match. Even when they missed a tough putt or shot, they would follow it up with a classy recovery. Everyone knew the Captains had held their lead towards the finish, but things were still very close for second. It wasn't until the final cards were turned in and the scores were added that the teams actually knew who took the second place finish.
The Lions were happy to claim the second place title over their conference rival York College. Along with the team finish, came many well-earned individual awards. Jason Long (Rockhill Furnace, Pa. / Southern Huntingdon County), played in his final collegiate performance and finished with a 77 round today and a +12, 10th place finish. Sophomore Tyler Serres (Camp Hill, Pa. / Trinity) also had a 77 today which put him in seventh place for the tournament. Both Serres and Long's finishes earned them a place on the CAC All-Conference second team.
Shank came into the final round just three strokes back of the leader in hopes of using his home course knowledge to make up the difference. He was not able to catch the tournament champion Jonathan Howard from Christopher Newport, but his plus three round was good enough for a share of second place. The freshman's final round of the year did leave him with more than a few honors. He took home a spot on the CAC All-Conference first team as well as being named the conferences Newcomer of the Year.
The second place finish is the best overall result for the Harrisburg athletics program who joined the very difficult Capital Athletic Conference this year.