EMCC - Athletics: Sports, News, Players, and Coaches. Go Lions! - EMCC Lions place fourth at MACJC's fifth golf event of spring campaign

OLIVE BRANCH – In the MACJC’s fifth and final regular-season golf tournament of the spring, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College finished fourth in this week’s event divided between Southaven’s North Creek and Wedgewood in Olive Branch.

Coach Dale Peay’s EMCC Lions scored well enough to post a pair of sub-300 team scores (298-297—595) for the second straight week, finishing just four strokes behind third-place Copiah-Lincoln Community College (295-296—591). However, the four-time defending NJCAA Region 23 champions of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College out-distanced the eight-team field by 12 strokes with rounds of 283 and 286 to sweep the MACJC’s regular-season schedule with their fifth straight team title of the spring. Northwest Mississippi CC claimed runner-up team honors with a two-day total of 581, though the Rangers fell out of contention with a final-round 295 after being just three strokes down following Monday’s opening round.

For the second consecutive week, the Lions were paced by sophomore Weston Wallace, who trimmed five strokes off his opening-round score to card a 1-under-par 71 Tuesday and finish 10^th with a two-day score of 147. Fellow sophomore Bobby Bowlin, Wallace’s former prep teammate at Northwest Rankin High School, fired a pair of 75s to finish in 14^th place.

With two solid rounds of 4-under-par 68, Northwest Mississippi’s Cameron Thomas claimed individual medalist honors with a 3-stroke victory over MGCCC’s Jack Sargent (72-67—139) and Northwest teammate Chad Cupples (69-70—139).

EMCC freshmen Miles Respess and Nick Davis tied for 15^th and 21^st place, respectively, though their final finishes came in contrasting fashion. Respess, from Paragould, Ark., was tied for fifth after Monday’s opening-round, 1-under-par 71, but he struggled with a second-day 81 to finish with a two-day score of 152. On the other hand, Davis, of Springville, Ala., shaved 14 strokes off Monday’s score with a final-round, 2-under-par 70 to finish at 154.

Rounding out EMCC’s scorecard at the two-day event, sophomores Tyler Slocum and Andrew Spiers tied for 26^th and 29^th place, respectively, with total scores of 158 (76-82) and 160 (86-74).

Having claimed state runner-up team honors a year ago, the EMCC Lions will next compete at this year’s MACJC State Golf Championship, April 16-17, to be held at River Birch in Amory.