SARASOTA, Fla. – Three Southern Conference men’s golfers were among the 155 honored as Division I PING All-Region selections, as announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America on Saturday. ETSU’s Adrian Meronk, Mercer’s Trey Rule and Western Carolina’s J.T. Poston earned the honor for the East Region.
Meronk, the SoCon Player of the Year, played in all 13 tournaments for the Buccaneers and recorded nine top-10 finishes, including three medalist honors. In 2014-15, the Buccaneer junior has been ranked as high as No. 14 nationally in the collegiate rankings and cracked the top 50 of the World Amateur Rankings.
The 2015 Palmer Cup selection registered a scoring average of 70.65 this past season, while posting 12 rounds in the 60s and 29 rounds of par or better. Meronk led the Blue and Gold in 10 of their 13 tournaments this season, while the Bucs used his score in 36 of his 37 rounds played.
Meronk begins play at the 2015 Palmer Cup on Friday, June 12, at Rich Harvest Farms, located in Sugar Grove, Ill.
The honor adds to an illustrious career for Mercer’s Rule, who becomes the first player in program history to earn back-to-back PING All-Region honors. His is also the first golfer in program history to compete in three straight NCAA Regional Championships.
Rule led the team with a 72.5 stroke average in 2015, while recording top-20 performances in seven of his 12 events. He led the team in birdies for the second straight year, carding 113 on the year to go along with six eagles.
The Eatonton, Ga., native finished collegiate career as arguably the greatest golfer in program history. He became the program's inaugural All-America honoree while also earning a trio of all-conference accolades including 2014 Atlantic Sun Golfer of the Year honors.
Poston is just one of two Catamount men’s golfers to earn all-region honors all-time, collecting honors in 2013, 2014 and again in 2015. Former WCU standout Matt Cook earned East region honors in 2008.
Poston claimed back-to-back Southern Conference individual medalist honors at the conference championship event, winning the 2015 title in a sudden-death playoff. He became the first Catamount men’s golfer to ever advance to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship by winning a second sudden-death playoff in the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional.
The Hickory, N.C., product entered the NCAA Championship as Western Carolina’s all-time leader in career stroke average. Eight of his 30 career top-10 individual finishes have come in 2014-15 with eight of his 21 career top-fives – including two of his six career tournament victories.