Middlebury won its fourth NESCAC Championship in the last five years, as the Panthers posted a pair of sub-300 rounds on Saturday and Sunday to capture the 2015 title. The league crown is the seventh overall for the Panthers, who receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. The event will take place from May 12-15 at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, North Carolina. The NESCAC Championship was held at the par-71, 6,315-yard Ralph Myhre Golf Course on the campus of Middlebury College.
Leading by five strokes after 18 holes with a 298, Middlebury shot a 297 on day two to defeat Williams by 14 strokes on a cool and windy day. The Ephs added three strokes to their day one total with a 306 to finish at 609. Trinity came in with a 311 for a two-day total of 624, good for third place. Hamilton shaved seven strokes off its day one total and shot a 313 to finish at 633 for the 36-hole event.
Fitz Bowen, who fired a 75 on day one, led Middlebury on the second day shooting a one-over par 72 to finish with a two-day total of 147. He tied for medalist honors with teammate Bennett Doherty, who posted rounds of 74 and 73. John Louie was next for the Panthers with a 75 on the second day of competition, winding up in fourth place with a 150. Charlie Garcia finished tied for ninth place with a 157 (74-83), while Eric Laorr finished in a tie for 14th, coming in with a 159 (82-77).
Despite the cool and damp conditions on the course, Williams' Grant Raffel was tied for the low round of the day on Sunday with Trinity's Nick Buenaventura and Bowen, as all three players shot 72s. Raffel placed third with a two-day total of 148 (76-72), while Buenaventura was tied for fifth overall tallying a score of 152 (80-72) along with Jake Goldenring of Williams (74-78-152).
The Ephs' Ross Hoffman shot a pair of 77s to wind up in seventh with a score of 154, while Hamilton's Riley Burgess was two shots back in eighth with a 156 (79-77). In a three-way tie for ninth with scores of 157 were Trinity's Nate Choukas (80-77), Garcia and Williams' Nate McCue (76-81).
