PressBox

The URI Athletic Department

The URI Athletic Department stretched the 2003-04 athletic year into the month of June with the success of the golf and baseball teams and the success of men’s track & field athlete Colin Aina. Rhode Island finished the year with seven Atlantic 10 titles in baseball (regular season), golf, men’s indoor track, men’s outdoor track, women’s indoor track, women’s outdoor track, and men’s soccer. URI coaches Frank Leoni (baseball), Laurie Feit-Melnick (indoor and outdoor track), and John Copeland (indoor track) took home A-10 Coach of the Year honors and baseball players Dan Batz (first-team) and Zach Zuercher (second-team) earned All-American honors, along with the Atlantic 10 Player and Pitcher of the Year honors.

The Golf Team

The Golf Team had already won their fourth Atlantic 10 Championship and qualified for the NCAA East Regional, where the Rams’ season has ended in each of the 12 previous years. This year was different. Rhody surprised the collegiate golf world by finishing eighth out of 27 teams in the NCAA East Regional and becoming the first Northeast District I team to qualify for the NCAA National Championships since the regional format was adopted in 1988. The top 10 teams in the Regional advance to the National Championships, and the Rams finished ahead of four Top 25 teams on the way to their third NCAA Championship berth (URI made trips in 1965 and 1967). Rhode Island finished 30th at the NCAA National Championships, but that hardly took the luster off making history. Junior Kenneth Fahey played the tournament of his life at the East Regional, finishing 2-under for the tournament (67-72-70), just one stroke behind National Collegiate Golfer of the Year Bill Haas of Wake Forest.

Zach Zuercher, Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year.

The Baseball Team

The Baseball Team made its second-straight Atlantic 10 Championship berth after finishing the conference season as Atlantic 10 regular season champions with a 20-4 record, the best league mark in school history and just the second time an A-10 team has won 20 conference games. The Rams lost their opener in the A-10 Tournament 7-6 to St. Bonaventure but went into the losers’ bracket to defeat second-seed George Washington and third-seed Richmond. Rhode Island then dropped a heartbreaker in the finals to St. Bonaventure 3-2 on a freak double play in the ninth inning with the tying run on second.

Track and Field

Track and Field. Colin Aina finished his career by qualifying for the NCAA National Championships in the 110 high hurdles. Aina’s school record-breaking performance in the 110 high hurdles (13.86 prelim, 13.98 final) at the NCAA East Regional Championship earned him an at-large bid to compete at the NCAAs, where he posted a fifth place finish in the 110hh prelim with a time of 13.81, setting yet another record.

Ron Petro

Ron Petro finished up his 12-year career as the athletic director at URI on a high note in June, earning the Northeast Region Division Athletic Director of the Year. Tom McElroy, took over as the 10th athletic director at URI on July 1.

As QUAD ANGLES went to press

Athletic Director Tom McElroy announced that Tom Garrick '90, one of the greatest players in URI history, has been named head coach of the women’s basketball team. Garrick succeeds Belinda “Boe” Pearman, who resigned in July. For further details, please check http://www.uri.edu/news.