GORHAM, Maine – University of Southern Maine head coach Brian Bickford has been named 2024 Little East Conference Men's Golf Coach of the Year after leading the Huskies to their first LEC title last week.
 
Southern Maine's all-freshman lineup turned in a record-breaking performance in the first round of the LEC Championship last Wednesday with a lowest round in both LEC Championship history and program history with a score of two-under par 282. Freshman Jaden Poirier (White River Junction, Vt./Hartford) also made history by breaking the conference championship and school records for lowest round by an individual with an incredible seven-under par 64.
 
The team fired a 315 (+32) on the second day to finish with a two-round score of 597 (+29) and win the title over reigning three-time champion Eastern Connecticut State University by three strokes. The team's total score is tied for the lowest two-round score in conference championship history and tied for fifth lowest in team history.
 
Poirier and Owen Moore (Pittsfield, Maine/Maine Central Institute) each earned First Team All-LEC honors by placing in the top five. Poirier finished the competition at even-par 142 to tie for the second-best two-round score in program history. Moore finished two storks behind him at 144 (+2) and tied for fifth-best in program history.
 
Freshman Alex Fournier (Augusta, Maine/Cony) also earned Second Team All-LEC status by finishing ninth with a two-day score of 155 (+13).
 
Bickford, a 1987 graduate of the University and a program alum, is in his second year as the coach of the Huskies.
 
The Huskies will wrap up their fall season at the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association Championship on October 19-20. As the conference champions, Southern Maine will compete in the 2025 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship hosted by St. John Fisher University and the Rochester NY Sports Commission from May 20-23 at Midvale Country Club in Penfield, N.Y.