Barton's Burke named D-II All-American! Muto and Burke All-Southeast selections!

June 11, 2009

NORMAN, Okla. - The final accolade that could have come the way of Barton College senior Jonathan Burke (Goldsboro, NC) became a reality on Wednesday when he was named an NCAA D-II All-American by the Golf Coaches Association of America.

Burke, a two-time All-Conference and All-Region selection, was the Southeast Region champion and South/Southeast Super Regional runner-up in 2009 and finished 29th of 108 players in the DII National Championships. He was the top-rated player in the Southeast and had a national ranking of 16th heading into Nationals. He finished the season with a scoring average of 73.0 in 25 rounds, shooting par or better 16 times. Burke was the 2007 Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference Champion and the 2008 Conference Carolinas Player of the Year. He was also Barton's Kiwanis Male Athete of the Year in 2008 and 2009.

The GCAA released its All-Region teams at the same time, and Burke and teammate Tom Muto Jr. (Wolcott, NY) were selected All-Southeast. Muto, who will be a senior next season, was also an all-conference choice and was a D-III All-American at St. John Fisher College in New York for two seasons before transferring to Barton. He averaged 73.05 this season.

"I am thrilled that the nation's coaches recognized Jonathan as an All-American," 12th-year Barton head coach John Hackney said. "He put together one of the best seasons in school history and had us in contention in virtually every tournament. This is the perfect end to an excellent career with the Bulldogs."

Burke is the seventh All-American during Coach Hackney's tenure. He joins 2004 National runner-up Courtney Faircloth (a First-Team choice) as the only Bulldogs to earn a spot on one of the first three teams. Five other Barton players have earned Honorable Mention All-America acclaim: Faircloth (2003), Josh Talton (2004), Jon Wetton (2004, 2005) and Daniel Castleberry (2008).

"I am also excited that the regional selection committees recognized the contributions Tom Muto Jr. made to our program this season," Hackney said. "He and Jonathan were our leaders from beginning to end, and their numbers were very comparable. Both Jonathan and I were sorry that our entire team didn't get to make the trip to Washington state for Nationals, because we thought we had a team that could win it all. Unfortunately, we just didn't quite get it done in an unbelievable regional field that included 15 teams ranked in the top 25. "

Barton was credited with four victories and finished the season 17th in the Nike/Golf World Coaches' Poll and 20th in the Golfstat poll. The Bulldogs will return eight players from that 2008-09 squad. 

Steve Cuzzort of Wayne State, Florida Southern's Jude Eustaquio, Matt Ewald of Washburn, Indianapolis Justin Hueber, Jake Koppenberg of Western Washington, IUP's Gavin Smith, Will Wilcox of Clayton State, Valdosta State's Brent Witcher and Central Missouri's Justin Yoder were previously named to the PING All-America First Team following the conclusion of the NCAA D-II National Championships at Loomis Trail Golf Club in Blaine, WA.

Patrick Bauer and Jarin Todd of Sonoma State, USC-Aiken's Roberto Diaz, Andrew Georgiou of Columbus State, North Alabama's Brett Munson, Kyle Scott of West Florida, Central Oklahoma's Colby Shrum and CSU-San Bernardino's Gene Webster comprise the second team.

Third-team honorees include Abilene Christian's Cyril Bouniol, Lynn's Steven Brame, Burke, CSU-San Bernardino's Micah Burke, Niclas Johansson of Georgia College, Ferris State's Kelbi Lee, Greg O'Mahony of Nova Southeastern and Florida Southern's Matt Stauch.

A total of 21 golfers were named honorable mention All-America.

Posted by admin under Golf, Uncategorized | Comments (0)