Dukes, Cole Place Second at CAA Championships

Friday, April 22

St. James Plantation <br>Southport, N.C.

All Day

James Madison University

CAA Championship

4/24/2016 2:38:00 PM | Men's Golf

SOUTHPORT, N.C. - The James Madison men's golf team finished as the runner-up on the team leaderboard while junior Ryan Cole earned runner-up on the individual leaderboard at the 2016 Colonial Athletic Association Championships at the Par-72, 6,786-yard St. James Plantation on Sunday.

In the third and final round, the Dukes (+27) posted a 295 as a team to move past the UNCW Seahawks and earn second out of nine teams at the CAA Championships for the second straight year. The College of Charleston (+5) led wire-to-wire to win their third consecutive CAA Championship and receive an automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA Regionals.

Cole (-3, 2nd) led the Dukes after bouncing back from a tough first round in which he shot a 4-over 76 to score a tournament-low 67 in the second round and a 70 in the third round. Through 54-holes, the Mount Airy, Md. native led the 45-golfer field in pars with 39 and added eight birdies and one eagle.

Charleston's William Rainey topped the individual leaderboard with a 5-under par for the tournament. Drexel's Christopher Crawford joined Cole and Rainey as the only golfers to stay under par on the weekend.

Also placing in the top-10 for the Dukes was freshman Alex Henderson (+6), who carded a 4-over par 76 on Sunday and a 222 for the tournament.

Sophomore Matt Cowgill (+13) tied for 23rd while sophomore Jack Floydd (+15) made huge strides over all three rounds to go from an 83 in round one to a 77 in round to and finally to a 71 in round three to tie for 26th. Junior Poom Pattaropong (+24, T-39th) wrapped up the scoring for the Dukes.

James Madison and Cole will now wait to see if they have done enough to earn an at-large bid to the 2016 NCAA Regionals. The selection show will air on the Golf Channel on Thursday, May 5 at 9:30 a.m.

QUOTING HEAD COACH JEFF FORBES
"We had it going with six holes left, but couldn't finish the round the way we wanted to. Ryan had another great tournament and came really close to winning it."

NOTEWORTHY
Cole has finished in the top 10 of all but two tournaments he has competed in during the 2015-16 season, including tournament titles at the Bash at the Beach Invitational and the Irish Creek Collegiate.

PHOTO OF THE DAY
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You find a full photo gallery from Sunday's round by clicking here.

CAA ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
William Rainey, CofC (Most Outstanding Golfer)
Ryan Cole, JMU
Christopher Crawford, Drexel
Thomas Eldridge, UNCW
Patrick Derby, CofC
Jonathan Dilanni, Elon

PREVIOUS RECAPS
You can read up on the CAA Championships first round here and the second round here.