CC Championship Web Site
Franklin & Marshall's men will defend their consecutive Centennial Conference (CC) championships this weekend when the Diplomats tee it up at Stonewall Golf Course in Elverson, Pa. Stonewall was the site of the 2010 Championships, where the Diplomats took the title by 11 strokes.
The 2010 CC title was F&M's fourth overall and third in the last four years. The Diplomats will look to register the first three-peat in CC history when the tournament is played out over Saturday and Sunday. There are 27 holes scheduled for each day.
The three-peat would be a feat not only for the record books, but also for an F&M team that has struggled to find its form in the 2010-2011 season. The Diplomats will head into the weekend with a season four-man average of 317.5 per round, the highest since the 2005-2006 season. McDaniel, the last non-Diplomat team to win a Centennial title, holds the league's top average going in at 314.3 through 22 rounds.
The Green Terror owns two of the top three individual averages, and four of the top 10, in the league this year. Paul Kovalcheck, the 2010 CC medalist is averaging 76.3 strokes per round through 18 played in 2010-2011, while Greg Bowman has shot 77.0 through the same number of rounds. The Diplomats' Cameron Warner, III is keeping the pace with a 77.4 through 16 rounds.
Warner, who will play number one for F&M this weekend, is as steady as ever. In 2009-10, he averaged 77.3 strokes per round. The junior has averaged 77.9 strokes over the course of his career. He has eight top ten finishes this year, including three top-five finishes and a pair of medals. He shot his top 54-hole tournament score of 224 at last year's CC Championship to finish in second place. Warner is the Diplomats' best bet to take individual medalist honors, which would be F&M's first since Carson Crooms won the 2004 tourney.
If the Diplomats want to contend, they will need the services of the two-man, Danny Liebowitz. The junior is 5.3 strokes over his freshman average of 77.1 with an 82.4 this year. Liebowitz will carry the highest average of the Diplomats' top four into the tournament. He has 15 top-ten finishes in his career, but only two of them have come this year. He shot 232 at last year's tournament, which was a three-stroke improvement over his freshman championship.
F&M's number-three, Brendan Mohler, owns the league's tenth best average this year at 81.1 per 18. He shot 229 at the 2010 championship, the only 54-hole tournament of the junior's career. Of his five top-five tournament finishes, two have come this year.
Jeremy Rubin will occupy the fourth spot in the lineup with an 81.9 average, 15th in the CC. The sophomore has one 54-hole tournament score in his career, a 233 at last year's CC championship. Both of his top five finishes, through 21 career events, were rung up this year.
Either Dave Gilbert or Mike Levenson will occupy the five spot for F&M. Gilbert, a freshman, has averaged 81. 8 strokes over nine rounds this season. He finished in the top ten in two of those rounds. Levenson, also a freshman, owns an 83.0 avaerge over seven rounds at six events. He finished in the top ten once this season.
Swarthmore will give the Diplomats and the Green Terror a run averaging 319.6 this season. The Garnet's Paul Weston owns the league's fifth best average this season at 78.2. Gettybsurg carries a 323.4 into the tournament. Austin Smith leads the Bullets with an 81.4, 13th in the CC.
The Diplomats are playing for their 10th overall league championship. F&M won five Middle Atlantic Conference Championships between 1980 and 1987. The Centennial's champion earns an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championship Tournament. Should the Diplomats earn the honor, it would take F&M to the NCAA tourney for the eighth time.
GoDiplomats.com will have scores and recaps at the end of each day of action.
