There was quite a takeaway from the conclusion of the Roadrunner Men's Golf Team's run in the NJCAA Division III National Championship Meet in Chautauqua Golf Club in Chautauqua, NY on June 7th.
It came on Day 2 of the tournament when the upstart Roadrunners had a lackluster day and fell in the team standings to 10th place. Coach Guy Davidson pulled his team aside prior to the start of Day 3 action, and laid it out on the line.
"I said to them we had a bad day and we needed to pull it together," said Davidson. "There was no way we should be finishing in 10th place in this tournament."
The takeaway proved to be that Davidson's team was ready to meet the challenge!
The Runners, led by sophomore Logan Perrone and freshman Nick Iuliucci, rebounded nicely on the final day, moving up in the standings and placing 7th overall in the NJCAA final standings with 1328 team points.
Iuliucci placed 31st overall in the individual standings followed by Perrone in 33rd place, Eddie Mazurkiewicz (38th), Paul Welker (63rd) and Alex Seber (68th).
The seventh place finish in the team standings proved to be an improvement over the Runners' 9th place showing in the national tournament in 2023.
"Nick and Logan answered the bell after that discussion and they showed the stage wasn't too big for them," Davidson said. "We knew we belonged in this tournament and we came up big on the last day. I'm proud of the way we responded to the challenge -- our response is what really mattered."
The final golf standings, ironically, also played a key role in Roadrunner Athletics being named winner this past week of the Learfield Directors' Cup as the top overall junior college in the nation! RCSJ compiled 184.9 points in the Cup standings, just enough to edge out runner-up Iowa Western Community College with 184.25 points.
The Learfield Directors' Cup recognizes the best two-year college athletic program in the country. Over 800 colleges are considered for this annual national award, and this is the 2nd time RCSJ Gloucester has won the award -- the last time was in 2012-13. This marks the first time the Runners were selected for the Learfield Directors' Cup under Executive Director of Athletics Brian Rowan. The award was presented to Rowan and Assistant AD Rich Cooper during the NACDA Annual Convention in Las Vegas on June 11.
The Men's team's surge on the final day of play in the DIII Golf Championship gave the Roadrunner program just enough of a boost to win the Learfield Cup!
"I guess we played our role well but never realized the pressure we were under," said Coach Davidson. "We're all thrilled with the finish we had in the golf team standings and just as happy to have helped our program win the Learfield Cup. This has been quite a Spring!"