Men's Golf Set for Patriot League Championship this Weekend at West Point

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Schuyler Stitzer earned First Team All-Patriot League honors with a T-4th finish at the 2013 Patriot League Championship, and this weekend the senior will headline Bucknell's six-man team that will head to West Point, New York, in search of the 2014 conference title. The 54-hole event will consist of 36 holes on Saturday and 18 on Sunday at the West Point Golf Club, with automatic NCAA Regional bids at stake for the team and individual champions.

Stitzer will be joined in the lineup by fellow senior Thomas Walter, juniors Zach Pogust and Peter Scialabba and freshmen John Edler and D.J. Magee. The team's top four scores will be counted in each round.

Bucknell has endured a challenging spring thanks to some unpleasant weather and a number of weekday tournaments that affected head coach Jim Cotner's lineup selections. Still, the Bison have played some good golf leading up to the Patriot League Championship, highlighted by a fourth-place finish out of 18 teams at the Lafayette Invitational earlier this month.

Last week at the Navy Invitational, the Bison finished behind the host Midshipmen but ahead of Lehigh, Lafayette and Colgate. Bucknell also topped those three league rivals at the Lafayette Invitational.

Stitzer has a team-best 75.9 scoring average this spring despite the frigid weather, and he is coming off a top-20 finish at Navy. Scialabba posted a T-11th finish at Lafayette, and his 76.3 spring average is second on the squad behind Stitzer.

Edler (77.5), Magee (78.0), Walter (78.3) and Pogust (78.7) also have sub-79 averages. Edler, Scialabba, Stitzer and Walter all have season-best rounds of 74, with Stitzer and Walter posting that number at Kingsmill's River Course at the Middleburg Bank Intercollegiate to start the campaign in late-March.

In the pre-championship coaches' poll, Army was tabbed as the favorite but by just one point ahead of Patriot League newcomer Loyola. Navy was picked third, followed by Lehigh, Bucknell, Lafayette, Colgate and Holy Cross.

Loyola comes in with the best Golfweek national ranking at 138, followed by Army at 195 and Lehigh at 244.

Lehigh is the defending Patriot League champion, winning last year on its home course at Saucon Valley Country Club. Bucknell placed fourth last season. Stitzer, Pogust, Scialabba and Walter all competed in the 2013 championship, with Stitzer earning All-Patriot League honors for the first time after this third straight top-20 finish. Scialabba was runner-up in 2012 at the Bucknell Golf Club and earned Patriot League Rookie of the Year honors.

The Bison have won three Patriot League men's golf titles, coming in 2006, 2007 and 2009.