April 17, 2005

NEW LONDON, N.C. - Virginia Tech shot a three-round total of 922 and finished in 10^th place at the 2005 ACC Men's Golf Championship at the 7,102-yard, par-72 Old North State Club at Uwharrie Point in New London, N.C. on Sunday afternoon.

Freshman Nick MacDonald (Harare, Zimbabwe) led the Hokies, finishing tied for 30^th place at 11-over-par 227. Ryan Blaum of Duke won medalist honors after leading all three rounds. He finished at 10-under-par 216, eight strokes better than Chan Song of Georgia Tech.

Redshirt senior Scott Wise (Vinton, Va.) tied for 38^th place at 231 and sophomore Ryan Sypniewski (Radford, Va.) finished in 41^st place at 233. Junior Joel Kraner (Dublin, Ohio) tied for 42^nd at 234 and freshman Chad Fultz (Staunton, Va.) was 50^th at 242.

Duke won the team title with a three-day total of 865, four strokes better than Georgia Tech. NC State was third at 880, Clemson was fourth at 883 and Virginia was fifth at 884. Wake Forest was sixth at 889, Florida State was seventh at 898 and North Carolina finished eighth at 906. Maryland finished ninth at 915, seven strokes ahead of the Hokies.

The Hokies were ninth after the first round and entered Sunday in 10^th place. Tech shot a final round 299 on Sunday, its best round of the three-day, 10-team event. By way of its win on Sunday, Duke receives an automatic berth into one of three NCAA Regionals in May.

FINAL RESULTS
1.   Duke             292     291     282=     865
2.   Georgia Tech     293     290     286=     869
3.   NC State         299     293     288=     880
4.   Clemson          300     293     290=     883
5.   Virginia         299     303     282=     884
7.   Wake Forest      302     303     284=     889
6.   Florida State    297     306     295=     898
9.   North Carolina   314     305     287=     906
8.   Maryland         302     316     297=     915
10.  VIRGINA TECH     308     315     299=     922