PINEHURST, N.C. – Senior Nick Contini carded his second one-over par 72 to solidify his position among the top 10 to lead the Longwood men's golf team to a seventh-place finish at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate Sunday, played at the No. 8 course of Pinehurst Resort & Country Club.
 
Contini made three birdies in his last six holes to secure his second top 10 finish of the season, as he climbed six spots on the leaderboard to finish T-6 overall with his second one-over par round of the tournament.
 
"Outside of the start and finish of yesterday's round, Nick was solid all tournament," said Longwood head coach Kevin Fillman. "For the most part, he did a good job limiting damage in what was some tough scoring conditions. I think his experience in the less-than-ideal weather that we often see in college golf allowed him to get pretty much everything he could out of his rounds."
 
Contini's finish aided Longwood to a seventh-place finish as a team with a 54-hole score of 303-306-301—910 (+58). Radford captured the tournament title with a team score of 300-297-289—886 (+34) while Ball State (+35, 887), Old Dominion (+36, 888), Dayton (+36, 888) and Elon (+40, 892) rounded out the top five teams.
 
"We played some both really solid and very poor stretches of golf today," Fillman said. "I do think we had some players who really played hard and battled all day to post scores we needed.  We seemed to make a fair number of birdies given the weather and difficulty of the course set-up, but we made a bunch of big numbers again that cost us any chance to post a good number." 
 
A product of Granville, Ohio, Contini ranked among the top 25 in the field in par-3, par-4 and par-5 scoring, including ranking tied for seventh in the field in playing the par-5's at one-under par. The top 10 finish for Contini marks his fifth top 10 performance in the last two seasons.
 
Brandon Weaver finished just outside the top 25 at T-27 overall with a final round five-over par 76, while Adam Szwed turned in Longwood's second-best round of the day with a three-over par 74. Szwed finished T-34 overall among the 84-player field.
 
"Even though we did a few things that we just can't do, we can pretty much live with what we did in the first round and today's round," Fillman said. "It was yesterday's round when we had decent scoring conditions that kept us from being up there with the lead group of teams."
 
Teagan Stephenson posted a final round eight-over 79 to place T-56 overall, while Jordan Boulton just his second round of 80 or worse in the past two seasons with a final round 10-over 81 to place 62nd overall.
 
Longwood will have two weeks off before returning to competition at the Kingsmill Intercollegiate March 25-27 at Kingsmill Resort.
 
Longwood Leaderboard
T6             Nick Contini                          72-76-72—220 (+7)
T27          Brandon Weaver               77-74-76—227 (+14)
T34          Adam Szwed                         78-77-74—229 (+16)
T56          Teagan Stephenson        77-79-79—235 (+22)
62            Jordan Boulton                                     77-79-81—237 (+24)
 
Team Leaderboard
1               Radford                                    300-297-289—886 (+34)
2               Ball State              297-304-286—887 (+35)
T3             Old Dominion    300-295-293—888 (+36)
T3             Dayton                   298-300-290—888 (+36)
5               Elon                          300-299-293--892 (+40
6               Eastern Ky.          303-296-299—898 (+46)
7               Longwood            303-306-301—910 (+58)
8               Morehead St.     302-301-309—912 (+60)
9               Marshall               310-299-307—916 (+64)
10            Belmont                308-307-302—917 (+65)
11            Xavier                     315-305-300—920 (+68)
12            Ohio                         326-301-306—933 (+81)
13            Siena                       325-300-313—938 (+86)
14            Wis. Lutheran   338-328-327—993 (+141)
 
Individual Leaderboard
1               Michael VanDeventer                     Ball State              71-72-72—215 (+2)
2               Alex Weiss                                               Marshall               74-72-71—217 (+4)
T3             Blake Cartwright                                 Morehead St.     74-73-71—218 (+5)
T3             Caleb Wolters                                       Dayton                   77-70-71—218 (+5)
T3             Peter Gasperini                                                     Radford                                    72-75-71—218 (+5)
T6             Johnny Watts                                        Ball State              73-79-68—220 (+7)
T6             Nick Contini                                            Longwood            72-76-72—220 (+7)
T6             Jared Brown                                           Eastern Ky.          73-75-72—220 (+7)
T6             Calvin Greschner                                Old Dominion    76-69-75—220 (+7)
T10          Myles Creighton                                  Radford                                    74-72-75—221 (+8)
T10          Edvin Lindgren *                                   Eastern Ky.          72-75-74—221 (+8)
T10          Domenic Maricocchi                        Dayton                   75-72-74—221 (+8)