KUTZTOWN, Pa. (October 18, 2023) – Sophomore Austin Liao and senior Gus Vickers each finished even-par to lead the Stevens Institute of Technology golf team to a first-place finish Wednesday at The Melee, hosted by Premier Collegiate Tournaments at the Berkleigh Golf Club (par 72 – 6,729 yards). 

The event was a single-day makeup event after the original event, which was set for Sept. 23-24, was canceled. 

Liao fired a 36 on both the front and back nines, while Vickers fired a 34 over the first nine holes and a 38 on the back nine to tie for first place out of 32 golfers. By virtue of having needing two less strokes to complete the back nine (a match of cards was the event tiebreaker), Liao was declared the winner to mark his first collegiate individual title.

As a team, the Ducks carded a 292 – the program's low mark in the fall campaign – to win the team title by 17 strokes over Stevens' second team and 23 strokes ahead of Drew, who took third place out of the five competing teams. The tournament victory was the 17th for head coach Charles Papendick and the Ducks' round score of 292 tied for the fourth-lowest in program history. 

The Rundown

• Stevens sent two teams to the event. Four of the five golfers on the Ducks' "A" team finished in the top-four, along with one member of the "B" team. Five of the top-six call Hoboken home. 
• Liao and Vickers were the only players in the field to reach par or better. Each golfer carded four birdies. Both Liao and Vickers hovered between 1-under and 1-over for the entire round.

Top Performers

• Sophomore Brock Dickson had his best performance of the fall campaign, finishing 1-over (73) and in sole possession of third place. The Barrington, Illinois native matched Liao and Vickers with four birdies.
• First-year Sebastian Beaver and junior Eduardo Terlaje each finished 2-over to tie for fourth place with Goucher's Evan Yue. Beaver joined the three golfers in front of him in carding four birdies, but only one came on the back nine, leading to his 2-over finish. Terlaje, meanwhile, matched Vickers with the best front nine score in the field (-1). The Yona, Guam native double bogeyed the 18th, leading to a 3-over finish across the back nine. 
• First-year Ben Slicker and junior Will Fulton tied for 11th and 13th, respectively. The pair combined for six birdies.  
• Senior Joss Hindin (+9), first-year Maxime Debets (+10) and sophomore Punn Chittaratlert (+12) rounded out the Ducks' 10 entrants. Debets' 82 counted towards the "A" score, while Hindin and Chittaralert's efforts rounded out the "B" squads scorecard.

For the Opponents

• Yue was the highest non-Stevens finisher, matching Terlaje and Beaver at 2-over to tie for fourth place. 
• Stevens was the only school to place multiple golfers in the top-10. Albright and Drew each had multiple golfers in the top-15.

Around the MAC Freedom 

• Arcadia sent a pair of teams to the Battle at Bulle Rock (Bulle Rock Golf Course/Havre de Grace, Md.), finishing seventh and eighth, respectively, in an eight-team field. Individually, Arturo Hernandez was the Knights' top finisher, finishing 4-over on each day to tie for second place at 8-over. Hernandez was five shots off the pace. 
• Lebanon Valley competed at Franklin & Marshall's Fall Invitational and tying for seventh out of 13 teams in a competitive field. Indiviudally, Brandon Staniszewski and Ian Stefanchik tied for 26th place at 9-over to lead the Dutchmen. 

Coach's Comments – Head Coach Charles Papendick

• "I'm amazed at how competitive our players are relative to the small amount of practice time that they are able to get in. Congratulations to Austin and Gus on their first-place finish and I thought Eduardo, Sebastian and Brock had really nice rounds. Hopefully our depth will be a big difference maker for us when we resume play in the spring as we look to defend our MAC Freedom title." 

Up Next

• Stevens Golf returns to links for the second half of the season in the spring. The Ducks will be in search of their fourth straight MAC Freedom title. 

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