JERSEY CITY, N.J. – The Saint Peter's University men's golf team, three-time champions of the Metropolitan Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), was picked to finish in second in this year's tournament, as unveiled in today's 2020 MAAC Preseason Men's Golf Poll.
The Peacocks, who were runners-up in last spring's by just seven strokes, trail only Rider in the nine-team field. Saint Peter's is shooting for its fourth league title and first since the 2017 campaign that saw them edge Siena by three strokes for the championship.
Garnering a first-place vote and 64 total points in the rankings, Saint Peter's was slotted 15 points behind Rider, which boasted seven first-place tallies for 79 points. The Peacocks edged the Broncs by a single stroke in last year's tournament, while the 2019 champion – Iona – was picked to finish in third place with 62 points in the ledger.
Canisius gathered the lone remaining first-place vote and was slotted fourth with 53 points followed by Siena (51) to round out the top-five teams. Monmouth (33 points) was picked to finish in sixth followed narrowly by Fairfield (32); Manhattan (16) and Niagara (15) rounded out the nine-team compilation.
Guided by the return of last year's individual champion, junior
Jeffrey Peters, the Peacocks are coming off a fall campaign that saw them place sixth place or higher in four of their five tournaments that they competed in. More impressively, two Peacocks won medalist honors after senior
Stanley Garrant and sophomore
Melvin Morales each tied for first place at the Deal Invitation in September. Peters led the team in overall scoring average (73.89) while the Peacocks, as a whole, averaged an 11-over-par four-player team score through the fall's five events.
Saint Peter's opens the spring when it hosts the Peacock Invitational on March 23 at Fox Hollow Golf Club.
