FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 17, 2014

Two-day event tees off Saturday at
Ponkapoag Golf Course in Canton, Mass.

WINTHROP, Mass. – Following a vote among the league's eight head coaches, Rhode Island College has been selected as the favorite for the upcoming Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Men's Golf Championship, which gets underway on Saturday and will conclude Sunday at the Ponkapoag Golf Course in Canton, Mass.

Having won three consecutive GNAC titles, the Anchormen received 61 points and five first-place votes in the coaches' poll. They will look to four-peat this weekend at the 2014 championship, which will be hosted by Suffolk University, after shooting a collective 305-305—609 at last fall's event in Cranston, R.I.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth finished second in the poll after receiving 55 points and the other three first-place tallies, as the Corsairs were the runners-up at last year's championship, finishing 14 strokes behind RIC.

The University of Southern Maine took the third spot in the ledger with 47 points, narrowly ahead of Johnson & Wales University, which received 44 points.

Host Suffolk rounded out the top-five with 28 points, while Saint Joseph's College of Maine and Worcester State University tied for sixth place with 18 points apiece. Emmanuel College garnered 17 points in the poll.

Founded in 1995, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III association made up of 12 member institutions and over 3,000 student-athletes across the New England region. Each year, the GNAC sponsors and administers 17 championships, while balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunity and community involvement.

2014 GNAC Men's Golf Championship Coaches' Poll
1. Rhode Island College (5) - 61
2. UMass Dartmouth (3) - 55
3. Southern Maine - 47
4. Johnson & Wales - 44
5. Suffolk - 28
T6. Saint Joseph's (ME) - 18
T6. Worcester State - 18
8. Emmanuel - 17

( ) - indicates number of first-place votes

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