Husson hopes to score third straight NAC title Hermon’s Duplisea heads Eagles’ youthful team

If it is to three-peat, the Husson College golf team will have to do it with a major youth movement this time around.

The Husson Eagles are teeing up for a third straight North Atlantic Conference championship and, despite losing three members of last year’s five-man squad, they are again in the field of favorites.

The action starts Saturday at Boothbay Country Club as Husson tees off at 10 a.m. Thomas College of Waterville is hosting the two-day tournament.

“I’d have to think we’d still be one of the favorites and I definitely think we’re in the top three going in,” said Husson coach Bruce MacGregor, whose team features eight freshmen.

Husson and Castleton State College of Castleton, Vt., are favored among the 10 member teams. Castleton is led by senior Bryan Smith, the most recent NAC Player of the Week, who was the medalist at the ECA Championships with a 2-under-par 69. Neil Baigneault of Elms College is another individual standout.

Husson is led by Adam Duplisea, a junior from Hermon with an average round score of 76.3 this season.

Right behind Duplisea are sophomores Ben Estabrook of Bangor and Chris Coffin of Presque Isle. The rest of the lineup – and all of these players are possible tournament players as the starting five lineup has changed fairly regularly this season – are junior Brian Johnson and freshmen Kevin Byrne, Chris Hamel, Josh Gallagher, Adam Packard, Nick Pelletier and Adam Fournier.

“The biggest difficulty for us is which five guys to bring,” MacGregor said. “I just went through all the stats today and the lowest average is 76.3 and the highest is 79.5. Then I went through the qualifying rounds and it’s almost the same: 74.2 and 80. It’s that close. No one has really distanced themselves except maybe our top three.”

That’s what this week’s challenge matches are for.

“We’ve been doing most of that this week and that’s good because otherwise it would be really hard to pick which five we use,” he said.

MacGregor had high expectations for his young team already, but even he has been impressed. There’s only one thing he can point out as a weakness with this group.

“We know we can play with anybody, especially when we’re playing at the high level we’re capable of, but if there’s one thing we haven’t done as well is maybe play consistently,” he explained. “But that’s golf.”

It’s also the mark of youth and inexperience at the collegiate level.

“I think we’re very ready,” MacGregor said. “Our invitational tournament was a little disappointing because we didn’t shoot well the second day, but I think it can be a springboard into the NACs.”