St. Helena Island, S.C. – The Towson University men's golf team has officially completed the 2023 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championships finishing in seventh after rounds of 307-291-313. After the three round tournament the 2022-23 Tigers finished third best on the all-time scoring average list by one stroke with a 293.97. 

UNCW earned the championship title, finishing 14-under after rounds of 289-273-288. Elon (298-282-278) took second and Drexel (285-293-294) rounded out the podium in third. Patrick Sparks from UNCW remained in first place individually, finishing 11-under with rounds of 68-65-72.  

The course average for each round at the Dataw Island Club was 75.9, 74.32 and 76.96. 

How it Happened 
Jeremy Summerson was Towson's top finisher, tying for 18^th after having rounds of 76-72-74. The senior notched two birdies during the back nine to offset a bogey on hole 14. At the conclusion of his collegiate career, Summerson now ranks third on the single season scoring list with an average of 72.41.  

Brad Riley (76-71-79) was the next finisher for the Tigers. The Maryland native added four more birdies to his scorecard during the final round. Riley made the sixth most amount of birdies at the tournament, recording nine total across 54 holes of play. 

Justin Griffith (78-74-79) added a birdied No. 3 and was on par for 10 of the 18 holes. Griffith wrapped up his collegiate career breaking the program record for most rounds played, tallying 120 across his five years with Towson.

Julian Gonzalez (78-74-82) and Ryan Peters (77-82-81) rounded out the squad, earning a combined three birdies for the day.

Quotes from Coach Mike Larkin 
"Conditions were more difficult for sure, wind was up which makes it much more difficult – you can't always tell where it's coming from and how strong it is. The other thing that I think played into it was we were probably a little bit disappointed at not being in the mix and lost a little bit of the fight knowing that it was going to be almost impossible to accomplish our goal coming in which was to win the championship. I think it was a great season overall and hopefully that's not lost on the guys. Even though we didn't have the performance we wanted here at conference championships, being able to see this season up there with my junior and senior year when I was here at Towson and how great those teams were should speak volumes." 

"Peters prepared like a pro just like we had talked about going into, even though he thought he probably wasn't going to see action, he came in and was prepared and ready to go when his number was called basically 30 minutes before that first day tee time – then the challenge of not knowing if he was going to stay in the lineup. Griffith and Summerson, those guys have just been here for 4 and 5 years and done everything the right way – been great leaders and I'm really going to miss those guys and as far as Julian and Ryan at least we'll get a chance to go down to PGA Works and get some more college golf under their belt." 

Up Next 
Graduate students Julian Gonzalez and Ryan Peters will go on to compete at the PGA Works Collegiate Championship on May 8-10 before wrapping up their collegiate careers.