Husson wins NAC title for third straight year Hamel, Duplisea, Coffin help Eagles prevail

BOOTHBAY – Despite its youngest lineup of the last three seasons, the Husson College Eagles teed off on the rest of the tournament field and won their third straight North Atlantic Conference golf championship going away.

After finishing with an overall team score of 312 in Saturday’s opening round, the Eagles had a 16-stroke lead over second-place Castleton State College. The lead widened Sunday as Husson shot a 307 for a 619 total and a 37-stroke victory.

It was quite an impressive effort for the Eagles, who were unable to get in a Friday practice round due to steady rain at Boothbay Country Club, a course they had never played.

“We didn’t have a lot of knowledge about the course and we struggled a little bit early,” said Husson coach Bruce MacGregor. “We fell behind early on, but as things progressed, we seemed to get some rhythm.”

Only three individual golfers posted scores in the 70s Saturday and three of them – junior Adam Duplisea (77) of Hermon and sophomores Ben Estabrook (79) of Bangor and Presque Isle’s Chris Coffin (78) – were from Husson.

Second-day scores were even better as overall tournament medalist Duplisea shot 71, Coffin had an 80, freshman Adam Packard was at 77 and freshman Chris Hamel of Waterville carded a 79. Estabrook was disqualified, but it didn’t affect the team score because only the top four scores are used.

“I was particularly pleased with Hamel and Packard because they came back so strong today,” MacGregor said.

That wasn’t the only good news for the Eagles Sunday as their players were named NAC player (Duplisea) and NAC rookie (Hamel) of the year for a second straight year.

All-conference first team honors went to Hamel, Duplisea and Coffin while Packard was named to the second team.

The victory qualifies Husson for a second straight trip to NCAA Division III Nationals in Atlanta next May. MacGregor credits the maturity of a talented freshman class and veteran leadership for his team’s success.

“It’s the deepest freshman class I’ve ever had, for sure,” said MacGregor, who’s now in his 14th season as coach. “This was a banner year for quantity and quality for us.”

Bob Timmons of the University of Maine-Farmington was named NAC coach of the year. The rest of the NAC first team was UMF’s Kyle Feltis, Castleton State’s Bryan Smith, and Elms College’s Neil Daigneault.