Appel Records First Eagle of the Season as Harford Golf Team Finishes Competition at NJCAA National Championship

From the HCC sports desk:

SCOTTSBORO, Ala.—Sophomore Chris Appel (Abingdon, Md./Bel Air) rallied from three strokes down behind freshman teammate Anthony Vincenti (Aberdeen, Md./Aberdeen) to finish as the top finisher for the Harford golf team at the 2009 NJCAA Division II National Championships on Friday at Goose Pond Colony.

Appel went into the final round with a 235, third on the team behind sophomore Tony Tiburzi’s (Baltimore, Md./Patapsco) 234 and Vincenti’s 232, but shot a team-low 76 during the fourth day, which saw the Fighting Owls’ only eagle of the season as Appel shot two-under on the par 5 seventh hole.

The team leader would also birdie the 10th and 15th holes, marking the third time in four rounds that he shot one-under on the par 5 15th and besting his three-birdie output in the second round to finish with a 311 (82, 75, 78, 76), which was good for a tie for 76th in the tournament.

Tiburzi would also shave off one stroke from his previous round to shoot a 78 on the final day, with a birdie on the par 3 eighth, and finish the tournament tied for 80th along with Vincenti with a 312 (79, 76, 79, 78) total score.

Vincenti saw his worst round of the four-day tournament on Friday, shooting an 80, but did manage to birdie the ninth and 10th holes as he tied Tiburzi for 80th with a 312 (76, 78, 78, 80) cumulative score.

The field saw a three-way tie for first place after the regulation 72 holes on Friday between Rend Lake’s David Griffin, Darton’s Jin Chung and Potomac State’s Brian Affleck, which forced a playoff to determine the individual national champion.

Affleck bogeyed the first hole to finish in third, while Griffin and Chung both made par to advance to the second hole, which saw Chung record a bogey and Griffin sink a five-foot par putt to claim the individual national title.

On the team side, John A. Logan started the final day in third place, seven strokes behind leader South Mountain and six behind second-place Darton, but shot a 286 on Friday to finish with an 1161 (+9) total score claim the national title. Darton would shoot a 295 to finish with an 1164 (+12) total, while South Mountain struggled with a 305 on the final day to finish third with an 1173 (+21) for the tournament. John A. Logan’s Tom Ferris picked up his first national title and was also named NJCAA Division II Coach of the Year.