Loftus, Meloy among five to win Men's Golf conference honors
| Published: 04/30/2013 |
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WAUKESHA, WIS. — Scott Loftus was named the Northern Athletic Conference’s Roger Fleming Player of the Year and head coach Joe Meloy is the NAC Coach of the Year, leading a group of five to earn individual men’s golf honors from the conference when the awards were announced last week.
Loftus (Jr./Germantown, Wis./BE) joins Miguel Diaz-Garcia (Fr./Gijon, Spain) and Jacob Phelps (Fr./Loves Park, Ill.) on the all-conference team, while Victor Aiello (Jr./Kenosha, Wis./ME) earned the conference’s Sportsmanship Award. All of the players are year-end honorees for the first time in their collegiate careers.
Meloy was previously the NAC’s Coach of the Year in 2007-08 and Co-Coach of the Year in 2008-09.
MSOE won the 2013 Northern Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Championshipand will represent the league in the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championship. The Raiders rode a tournament-best team score of 303 in the final round of the NAC tournament to victory at Stonebridge Country Club in Aurora, Ill. on April 22.
“Loftus is an amazing player when he’s at his best,” Meloy said. “He didn’t play as well as I hoped in the second round of the conference tournament, so I challenged him to step up on the final day. He did and led us to the title.”
Loftus won the individual conference title by firing a 1-under-par 71 final round to finish the event with a 10-over-par 298. The 71 equalled the NAC Championship single-round record and was seven strokes better than Marian College’s Cory Ashbeck. Diaz-Garcia and Phelps were part of a three-way tie for seventh place with a 29-over-par 317.
While Meloy had kind words for all of his players after the awards were announced, he called Aiello a driving force in the team’s success. “Aiello deserves more credit than he’s going to get,” Meloy said. “He pushes the guys to get out there and really work at their game. His effort made a bigger difference than what shows up on the scorecard.”
The conference title is the Raiders’ third as a member of the NAC and the 13th under Meloy, whose teams dominated the Lake Michigan Conference before MSOE’s move to the NAC in 2006.
The victory marks just the third time the Raiders have qualified for the NCAA Championship, which will be held May 14-17 at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Destin, Fla. The Raiders’ first trip to the national championship came in 2009, when MSOE finished just one stroke away from qualifying for the 23-team final. MSOE last appeared in the tournament in 2011.
“You go for the experience,” Meloy said. “I don’t necessarily have any expectations. I just want my guys to understand how special it is to compete on that kind of stage. I’m very excited for them.”
