March 12, 2017
Tallahassee, Fla. – Freshman Luke Schniederjans fired a 4-under-par 68 Sunday, and 25th-ranked Georgia Tech posted an 8-under-par 280 for the day to finish tied for second with host Florida State at the 41st annual Seminole Intercollegiate at Southwood Golf Club.
Complete final results via Golfstat
TECH LINEUP – Schniederjans, Vincent Whaley (70), James Clark (71) and Tyler Strafaci (71) all broke par Sunday for the Yellow Jackets, who posted the low team round of the day and made up a four-shot deficit to tie host Florida State for second place. The Yellow Jackets challenged for the lead, getting to 31-under-par at one point and tied with eventual winner Penn State, but the Nittany Lions held firm while Tech dropped three shots to par in the last five holes.
Schniederjans posted four birdies and an eagle in making his way around the par-72 Southwood Golf Club under par for the third straight day. He finished alone in third place at 11-under-par 205, matching his season-low tournament total and collecting his third top-10 finish of the year (two of those have been victories).
Clark posted the third top-10 finish of his career with an 8-under-par score of 208. The junior from Columbus, Ga., played the front nine 4-under-par but faltered on the back nine with four straight bogeys on 14-15-16-17. He finished with a birdie at 18.
Strafaci, a freshman from Davie, Fla., earned his second top-20 finish of the spring with three straight subpar rounds this weekend, tying for 18th place at 4-under-par 212. Whaley, a senior from McKinney, Texas, also broke par for the third straight day, carding three birdies to go with one bogey Sunday in tying for 20th place in his first action since last October.
Freshman Andy Ogletree (Little Rock, Miss.) shot his second straight 72 but did not count for the Jackets Sunday, finishing in a tie for 44th place at 219 (+3). Junior Jacob Joiner (Leesburg, Ga.) tied for 34th place at 217 (+1), competing as an individual.
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Penn State and its junior Cole Miller led wire-to-wire in the team and individual races. The Nittany Lions posted their high score of the weekend, a 5-under-par 283, but stayed ahead of Tech and host Florida State with a 31-under-under-par total of 833.
The Yellow Jackets finished 54 holes at 836 (-28), their best score since the 2015 Puerto Rico Classic, to tie with the 30th-ranked Saminoles. FSU shot 284 (-4) in the final round Sunday.
James Madison finished a distant fourth at 847 (-17), followed by Troy (848, -16), West Virginia (849, -15), No. 31 Jacksonville (851, -13) and Southern Illinois (859, -5). The remaining six teams in the 14-team field finished above par.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Penn State’s Cole Miller fired a 4-under-par 68 Sunday for a tournament total of 201 (-15), two strokes clear of Florida State’s Harry Ellis, whose 70 on Sunday gave him a 54-hole score of 203 (-13). Schniederjans was another two shots back at 205 (-11), and West Virginia’s Alan Cooke was fourth at 206 (-10).
Jacksonville’s David Wicks, James Madison’s Ryan Cole and Troy’s Clay Vannoy tied for fifth at 207 (-9), while Tech’s Clark finished in a four-way tie for eighth at 208 (-8).
COACH Bruce Heppler SAYS – “It was a good day for our team to get on the lead and challenge for the win. We had the best round of the day, but we didn’t execute the way we needed to coming home. Overall, it was a very positive weekend for this group.”
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – Georgia Tech made its 14th appearance all-time in the Seminole Intercollegiate, and third in the last six years. The 54-hole event was played at the 7,172-yard, par 72 Southwood Golf Club.
Three of the 12 teams in the field were ranked among the nation’s top 50 in the Golfstat rankings, six in the top 100, with Tech ranking highest at No. 25, followed by host Florida State (30), Jacksonville (31), Penn State (54), James Madison (57) and Troy (88). George Mason, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, VCU, West Virginia, Western Carolina, Western Kentucky and Winthrop round out the field.
