West Liberty University men’s golf team earned second place and a host of individual honors at the Mountain East Conference Championship last weekend at Avalon Lakes Golf Course in Warren, Ohio. Although the weather brought a pause to play over the weekend it did not halt the Hilltopppers’ performance on the course as they were just pipped by Davis and Elkins College in the team competition while all-region junior Alex Easthom won a sudden-death playoff to earn MEC Player of the Year honors and take home the championship medal.

This second place team finish was a fitting end to the regular season for the Toppers after seeing success in every competition this year so far. The performance was enough to earn the squad a place in the regional tournament for the seventh year in a row. The team will play in the Atlantic/East Regional Championship for the NCAA Division II from May 6 to May 8.

The individual success on the Hilltopper team was also highly commendable with All-Region standout Easthom coming out on top against Davis and Elkin College’s Evan Lewis in a head-to-head competition. This cemented an incredible season for the junior Topper as he was named to the All-MEC first team and awarded the MEC Player of the Year Award to commend his performance in the 2021 season.

Easthom was not the only individual success story for the WLU men. Howard Peterson IV, a junior from Weirton, West Virginia put in an impressive performance on the day with a late surge up the leaderboard to finish 6-over-par at 150 securing third place on the podium. Peterson joined Easthom in earning a spot on the All-MEC irst team.

Freshman Bo Orecchio from New Concord, Ohio finished ninth in the medal chase in the MEC tournament and earned second team All-MEC honors as well as being named freshman of the year for the Mountain East.

The team will travel to North East Pennsylvania in a week’s time to compete in the regional tournament. Updates on the Hilltoppers progress throughout the course of the three days can be found on Hilltoppersports.com.