Jamie Smyth, head coach of the St. Joseph’s College golf team, knew the outcome of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference tournament would be close between his team, five-time defending champion Rhode Island College and the University of Southern Maine.

So when a cheer erupted from the Worcester State team as the final scores were posted, Smyth had a moment of panic. Had he overlooked the Lancers? Had they somehow pulled off an upset?

“I’m saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ ” Smyth said. “Then I realized it was because their guy was medalist for the tournament.”

Within moments last Sunday at Gorham Country Club, it was St. Joseph’s doing the celebrating. Four of Smyth’s five golfers had birdied the 18th hole, which wound up being the difference in a three-stroke victory over Rhode Island College and USM.

Not only was the GNAC title the first in school history, it earned the Monks a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament scheduled for next May 16-19 outside of Orlando, Florida.

“There was a lot of hand-shaking and some hugging,” Smyth said. “It was pretty mentally exhausting. We had never really been in that situation, with a national tournament berth on the line.”

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Senior Michael Caron, whose Gorham High team won two Maine high school championships, led the Monks with a 73-75–148 score that tied for second place, two strokes behind medalist Mike Jezierski of Worcester State.

“You can tell in the faces of your teammates and coaches when it’s getting close, especially coming down the stretch,” said Caron, whose teammates gathered around the 18th green to see his last-of-the-day group finish. “But the celebration didn’t really come until all the scores were posted. We thought we had won it, but it was not finalized until we were sitting in the clubhouse with the scores posted. That was a feeling unlike any other.”

Sophomores Adam Hachey (Winthrop) and Cam Letourneau (Hebron) tied for fourth at 150 (74-76 for Hachey, 72-78 for Letourneau). With Caron, they were named to the all-conference team, the first time more than one Monk earned such honors.

Junior Brandon Labrecque of Gorham tied for 26th with an 82-79–161 score and sophomore Adam Batchelder of Portland was a stroke back in 28th with 85-77–162.

“When you have five guys on your team all break 80 on the second day,” Caron said, “that’s definitely a good day.”

St. Joseph’s finished with a two-day, five-golfer total of 607. Rhode Island and USM each finished at 610, with RIC winning the tiebreaker for runner-up. Worcester State was another 12 strokes back followed by five other colleges.

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The only other conference title in St. Joseph’s history came in 1990, when Smyth played on a team that won the NAIA New England championship (after first-place Husson withdrew). A 1992 graduate, Smyth also coaches the St. Joseph’s softball team and has guided the Monks to six national tournaments, as an assistant in 1994 and as head coach in 1999 and 2011-2014.

The 15-member golf team wraps up its fall season on Cape Cod with the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association championship Sunday and Monday in Brewster, Massachusetts.

“Anytime there’s a school that’s won multiple times, they always have that championship pedigree,” Smyth said. “It’s almost like the Yankees in the late ’90s. There’s the mystique. That was kind of how Rhode Island was viewed.”

Even so, St. Joseph’s ended the first day one stroke behind USM and four ahead of RIC. No matter that the Monks had never finished higher than fourth in previous GNAC championships. They had won five tournaments earlier this season and were well acquainted with the Gorham course.

“I thought we were one of the top three or four teams at the tournament,” Smyth said. “We had a legitimate chance. We just had to play well.”

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CORRECTION: This story was updated at 4:37 p.m. on Oct. 24, 2016, to correct Smyth’s number of softball national tournament berths.


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