HICKORY, N.C. --- The Tusculum men's golf team finished fifth with a three-round score of 917 at the 2008 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Championship, held this week at the Lake Hickory Country Club at Catawba Springs.

Newberry shot an 866 (+22) to win the program's first-ever league title and earning the SAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional next month.

Carson-Newman College finished with a 902 (+38) to place second while tournament host Lenoir-Rhyne College finished third with a 909 (+45) on the par-72, 6,570-yard course. Provisional member Brevard College finished fourth, followed by Tusculum, Catawba College (917), Wingate University (929), Mars Hill College (930) and Lincoln Memorial University (938).

Individually, Newberry's Ben Lown took home medalist honors after carding a 208 (-8) and was the lone person under par for the tournament.

Joining Lown on the SAC All-Tournament Team were Lenoir-Rhyne's Jakin Fox (216, E), Newberry's Daniel Stanley (220, +4), Mars Hill's Chad Skinner (224, +8), Carson-Newman's Brad Robinson, Tyler Lane and Blake Howard, Wingate's Corey Iacofano and Lenoir-Rhyne's Chris Gilbert, who all shot a 225 (+9) to finish in a five-way tie for fifth place.

Tusculum's Chase Carroll, the two-time SAC Scholar Athlete for Men's Golf, finished tied for 11th with 77-72-77=226, along with rookie teammate Lawson George (73-71-82=226). Chris Wynne, the 2008 SAC Player of the Year finished tied for 14th with 79-73-75=227. Matt McIntyre finished with 241 for 36th place, while Jake Scheffers tied for 37th at 242.

Tusculum will wait to learn if it earned an automatic bid for next month's NCAA II Tournament.

- SAC -

FINAL RESULTS Food Lion SAC Championship
Lake Hickory/Catawba SprgHickory, NC
Dates: 04/14 - 04/15 (Today:04-15-2008)
Par: 72
Yardage: 6570
Fin. School Scores
1 Newberry College 301 288 297 886 +22
2 Carson-Newman Coll. 296 296 310 902 +38
3 Lenoir-Rhyne College 294 307 308 909 +45
4 Brevard College 307 296 309 912 +48
5 Tusculum College 312 294 311 917 +53
6 Catawba College 308 305 307 920 +56
7 Wingate University 309 310 310 929 +65
8 Mars Hill College 305 305 320 930 +66
9 Lincoln Memorial U. 315 311 312 938 +74

Fin. Name School Scores
1 Ben Lown Newberry 70 68 70 208 -8
2 Jakin Fox Len.-Rhyne 68 72 76 216 E
3 Daniel Stanley Newberry 73 71 76 220 +4
4 Chad Skinner Mars Hill 73 74 77 224 +8
5 Grant Carnie Brevard Co 77 74 74 225 +9
Brad Robinson Carson-New 75 76 74 225 +9
Corey Iacofano Wingate U. 77 70 78 225 +9
Tyler Lane Carson-New 70 73 82 225 +9
Blake Howard Carson-New 75 73 77 225 +9
Chris Gilbert Len.-Rhyne 71 77 77 225 +9
11 Chase Carroll Tusculum 77 72 77 226 +10
Sam Holtsclaw Len.-Rhyne 76 76 74 226 +10
Lawson George Tusculum 73 71 82 226 +10
14 Chris Wynne Tusculum 79 73 75 227 +11
David Martinez Brevard Co 73 73 81 227 +11
16 Thomas Bush Brevard Co 78 74 76 228 +12
Corey Talley LMU 77 72 79 228 +12
Nate Lockey Mars Hill 76 72 80 228 +12
19 Chet DeLong Wingate U. 75 82 72 229 +13
20 John Allen Meetze Newberry 79 76 75 230 +14
21 Eric Schmehl Catawba 77 80 74 231 +15
22 Josh Spalding Mars Hill 78 76 78 232 +16
Brad Greenside LMU 83 75 74 232 +16
Brandon Burnside Newberry 80 73 79 232 +16