Oct. 17, 2005

FLOURTOWN, Pa. - Junior Steve Arnold (Langhorne, Pa.) shot even par over two rounds and won medalist honors at the Penn/Big 5 Classic this past weekend at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. Arnold was the lone player in the field of 69 golfers to break par over 36 holes at the par-71, 6,843-yard course. Villanova finished in fifth place out of 14 teams at the tournament, but placed ahead of each of the other four Philadelphia-area schools to win the 2005 Big 5 Trophy. The Wildcats are the fourth different team in the four years the trophy has been awarded to take home the trophy.

Villanova shot team scores of 300-305=605 in the two-day tournament and were led throughout by Arnold. The transfer from East Tennessee State had the low team score in both rounds of the tournament, including a two-under-par 69 in the first round. He came back with a 73 in the second round and lowered his team-best stroke average to 72.18 for the season.

Following behind Arnold was freshman Doug Stadler (Wexford, Pa.) in a tie for 12th place with scores of 71 and 78. His finish in the field was his first top-20 result of the season. Classmate Andrew Alexander (Rochester, Minn.) tied for 27th place after shooting 77-76 and senior Colin Mahon (Rhinebeck, N.Y.) was tied for 57th with rounds of 83 and 78. Senior Jonathan Hewett (Sioux Falls, S.D.) rounded out the Villanova scores with results of 85 and 79.

Richmond and George Washington tied for the team title with a score of 592. The Spiders fired a tournament-low 292 in the first round and led the Colonials by six strokes, but George Washington came back with a 294 in the second round to gain the tie.

Among the Big 5 schools, Villanova was four strokes ahead of Saint Joseph's, which was eighth in the team standings with a score of 609. Temple and La Salle finished 13th and 14, respectively, in the team standings.

The same five golfers that competed in the Big 5 Classic will have little rest, as the Wildcats will be competing in the Tillinghast Cup hosted by St. John's on Monday and Tuesday. The tournament is being contested at the Fenway Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.