TRAFFORD, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - The Allegheny College men's golf program has been selected as the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) favorite for the 2023-24 season, according to the league's annual preseason coaches' poll. The results of this year's poll, voted on by the conference's nine head coaches, were revealed with the PAC's Players to Watch List Monday. 

The top three teams finished within two strokes of each other at the 2023 PAC Championships last spring and the voting in this season's preseason poll was nearly as close. Allegheny, last year's runner-up, gathered four first-place votes and 60 points to top the balloting. Washington & Jefferson College, who won last year's title by a stroke over Allegheny, also received four first-place votes and totaled 57 points. Westminster College, the third-place team at Championships by two shots behind W&J, collected 52 points and the final first-place vote.

Ranking fourth in the preseason poll was Grove City College with 43 points, followed by Saint Vincent College in fifth with 33 and Geneva in sixth with 28. Rounding out the balloting was Thiel College in seventh (24), Waynesburg University in eighth (17) and Bethany College in ninth (10).

Last year's PAC title came down to the final hole between W&J, Allegheny and Westminster The 36-hole fall event was hosted by the Avalon Golf & Country Club in Warren, Ohio last October, where the men played two rounds at Avalon Lakes. Allegheny held the day-one lead but Westminster, off the strength of a day-two score of 293, finished the fall rounds with a team score of 603 to take a five-shot lead over the Gators and a 12-shot advantage over W&J into the spring.

The final two rounds in April were played at Mill Creek Golf Course in Boardman, Ohio, with teams playing the South Course. Allegheny surged in front after the first round at Mill Creek and led Westminster by two and W&J by 13 entering the final round. But the Presidents roared back to shoot 292 as a team on the final day and when Andrew Platt (Somerset, Pa./Somerset) made par on the par-four 18th, it gave W&J a Championship-score of 1211 to edge Allegheny by one (1212) and Westminster by two (1213) for the Presidents' PAC-best 21st league title in program history.

As the winner of last year's PAC team title, W&J earned the conference's automatic-qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championships, which were held at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Ky. The Presidents finished 35th out of 43 teams, but the highlight was W&J's Cade Patterson (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford). His opening round 68 helped him make the cut as an individual and then his final round of 67 gave him a score of 287 for the tournament to tie for ninth place overall, the best finish ever by a PAC men's golfer at the NCAA Championships.

This year's Players to Watch list features last year's PAC MVP, as well as the PAC Newcomer of the Year, among the 11 returning all-conference players. In all, three First Team All-PAC selections, three Second Team All-PAC honorees and five All-PAC Honorable Mention players are back from last season.

Preseason favorite Allegheny and 23rd-year head coach Jeff Groff will be led by juniors Carter Hassenplug (North East, Pa./North East) and Bergas Anargya (Jakarta, Indonesia/Binus School Simprug). Hassenplug was the PAC MVP last year after shooting 291 over the four Championship rounds to outpace the second-place finisher by seven strokes. Also earning First Team All-PAC accolades was Anargya, whose third-round score of 71 was the lowest that day, as he finished with a score of 303 for the Tournament to tie for fourth. 

Hassenplug and Anargya, who are looking to lead the Gators to their 14th PAC title in program history, were also voted to the NCAA Division III PING All-Region 3 Team in May, as Allegheny was one of four schools to place multiple players on the All-Region 3 team.

Defending champion W&J and ninth-year head coach Matt Kluck, who was voted PAC Coach of the Year for a fifth time last year, will have Patterson, now a junior, and Platt, now a sophomore, trying to lead the Presidents to a second consecutive title. In addition to his top 10 finish at NCAAs, Patterson was First Team All-PAC after shooting 299 for the Championships, marked by a 68 in the final round for the best score of the PAC Tournament. Platt was named the PAC Newcomer of the Year after he was the top freshman on the leaderboard, as he also earned Second Team All-PAC distinction by tying for eighth overall with a 309.

The Players to Watch list includes nine members of the Spring 2022 PAC Academic Honor Roll, which recognizes student-athletes on varsity sports teams who have earned a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.6 or higher on a 4.0 scale during their semester of competition. 

This year’s PAC Championships will feature a 72-hole stroke play event, beginning with 36 holes played Monday-Tuesday, October 16-17 at the Avalon Golf and Country Club. The men will play two rounds at Avalon Lakes in Warren, Ohio.

The final 36 holes of this year’s championships will be played Friday-Saturday, April 19-20, 2024 at Mill Creek Metroparks and the Mill Creek Golf Course in Boardman, Ohio, with the men playing their final two rounds on the South Course.  

The All-PAC teams, along with the PAC Players of the Year and PAC Newcomers of the Year, are determined by the combined 72-hole scores from the fall and spring championships. The All-PAC teams are made up of the top 15 overall scorers (5 first team, 5 second team, 5 honorable mention). The combined 72-hole team totals determine PAC team champions and winners of the league's automatic-qualifying bids to the Division III Championships.

The Division III Men's Championships are scheduled for May 14-17 at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nevada. 
 

2023-24 PAC Men's Golf Preseason Coaches' Poll (Predicted order of finish)
School (first-place votes)	Points	2022-23 Conference Championships finish
1. Allegheny College (4)	60	2nd (of 8) at PAC Championships, 1212 [300-308-298-306]
2. Washington & Jefferson College (4)	57	1st (of 8) at PAC Championships, 1211 [308-307-304-292]
3. Westminster College (1)	52	3rd (of 8) at PAC Championships, 1213 [310-293-305-305]
4. Grove City College	43	4th (of 8) at PAC Championships, 1296 [345-319-320-312]
5. Saint Vincent College	33	5th (of 8) at PAC Championships, 1302 [332-333-323-314]
6. Geneva College	28	6th (of 8) at PAC Championships, 1305 [324-345-319-317]
7. Thiel College	24	8th (of 8) at PAC Championships, 1394 [338-333-363-360]
8. Waynesburg University	17	7th (of 8) at PAC Championships, 1359 [349-335-343-332]
9. Bethany College	10	Only completed spring round of PAC Championships

2023-24 PAC Men's Golf Players to Watch
1=2023 1st Team All-PAC / 2=2nd Team All-PAC / HM = Honorable Mention

Allegheny College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Bergas Anargya (1)	Jr.	Jakarta, Indonesia/Binus School Simprug
Faaris Cheema (HM)	Jr.	Dubai, UAE/Kings School Al Barsha
Carter Hassenplug (1)	Jr.	North East, Pa./North East
Zach Melzar (HM)	Jr.	Sterling, Mass./Wachusett Regional

 

Bethany College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Payton Hildebrand	Fr.	Wellsburg, W.Va./Wheeling Central Catholic
Jude Smith	Fr.	Weirton, W.Va./Weir

 

Geneva College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Jacob Delisio	Sr.	New Brighton, Pa./New Brighton
Mike DeMiere	Jr.	North Huntingdon, Pa./Norwin
Tim Ehko	Jr.	Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim
Austin Goehring	So	Mount Pleasant, Pa./Southmoreland
Josh Hido (HM)	Jr.	Kent, Ohio/Theodore Roosevelt

 

Grove City College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Aidan Allen	Jr.	Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington Central
Todd Hangliter	Sr.	Mars, Pa./Seneca Valley
Adam Steinmetz (2)	Jr.	Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny
Max Vaughn (HM)	Jr.	Lakewood, N.Y./Southwestern

 

Saint Vincent College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Brendan Cooley	So.	Pittsburgh, Pa./Serra Catholic
Brevin Urso	Sr.	Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel

   

Thiel College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Joe Grundy	Fr.	Saegertown, Pa./Saegertown
Mark Knox	Sr.	Franklin, Pa./Franklin

   

Washington & Jefferson College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Matt Lacek	Jr.	McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry
Luke Lestini	Sr.	Bridgeville, Pa./South Fayette
Cade Patterson (1)	Jr.	Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford
Andrew Platt (2)	So.	Somerset, Pa./Somerset

 

Waynesburg University
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Matthew Karpeal (HM)	So.	Smithfield, Pa./Albert Gallatin
Hudson Pincavitch	So.	Waynesburg, Pa./Waynesburg Central

 

Westminster College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Ellian Ascencio	Jr.	Venetia, Pa./Peters Township
Gavin Batdorff (2)	Jr.	Berlin Center, Ohio/South Range
Joe Trudeau	Sr.	Ann Arbor, Mich./Skyline