AMERICUS, Ga.- The Georgia Southwestern men's golf team have been ranked No. 14 in the Division II Bushnell Golfweek Preseason Coaches Poll which came out Friday.

GSW is one of four Peach Belt Conference teams that were ranked in the Top-25; USC Aiken was ranked eighth, Columbus State came in at 17th and Flagler 22nd. Lander, Armstrong State, Georgia College and Young Harris also received votes in the poll.  

Defending national champion Saint Leo is the top-ranked team followed by Florida Southern and then Lynn at No. 3.

Last season the Hurricanes recorded ten top-10 finishes including two tournament wins. The men started their season placing first at the Full Moon BBQ Invitational and took their second win at the Newberry College Invitational. GSW placed runner up at their own Hurricane Invitational and were fourth at the PBC Championships, tying their best PBC finish. They finished the season placing eighth at the NCAA DII South/Southeast Regional Championship and were second of all the PBC teams competing.

The Hurricanes etched themselves into the program record book quite a few times last season as well. They broke the team low 36 hole with a 564 (280-284) at the Full Moon BBQ Invitational, broke the team low 54 hole with an 849 (284-285-280) at the North Georgia Fall Invitational and fired a 279 at the McDonough Cup to tie the second best team low round in GSW NCAA era history.

The team earned All-Academic distinction from the Golf Coaches Association of America for their third consecutive year. They also led the NCAA Division II All-America Scholar list by having four men named Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholars; Hayes Dupree, Fraser Johnston, Nicholas Ward and Anders Olsson.

GSW returns senior All-American Ethan Chamineak, senior All-Conference performer and PBC Elite 15 Award recipient Nicholas Ward, senior Fraser Johnston, sophomore PBC co-Freshman of the year Tyler Barker and adds two to the roster; junior Nix Duncan and freshman Alex Wells.

The Hurricanes are looking to head back to the NCAA DII Regionals and make their way towards Nationals in the 2016-17 season.

The men will start their competitive season September 19 at the Jay Jennison Cup hosted by Flagler College at the Slammer & Squire Golf Course in St. Augustine, Fla.