MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tigers nearly completed an improbable Day 2 rally, falling just four strokes short of defending North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) champion Ohio Wesleyan. No matter. The strong final 18 holes by the Tigers at Mount Vernon Country Club cemented the program's first overall NCAC title since 1992 behind its first individual medalist since 2000, sophomore Ben Smith (North Bend, Ohio/Elder).
After winning each of the first three NCAC Series events, the Tigers trailed by four strokes in the opening round and 15 strokes by the end of Day 1. Wittenberg made up the 11 strokes it lost in the second round of the 54-hole tournament, but it wasn't enough to close the gap as Ohio Wesleyan finished at 914 and the Tigers wound up at 918. Allegheny finished third for the fourth straight tournament with a 944.
For the NCAC Championship Series as a whole, Wittenberg finished with 2705 strokes, well ahead of OWU's 2740 and Allegheny's 2799. The Tigers were crowned NCAC champions for the first time since 1992 and reached the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since 1993 by way of the league's automatic berth.
While Jesse Chiero of Ohio Wesleyan pulled out the Dick Gordin Player of the Year Award for his performance across the entire series, Wittenberg dominated the rest of the final awards, starting with Smith as the Bob Nye Award-winner as NCAC Invitational Medalist. He carded scores of 74, 71, 79 in the tourney, hosted by Kenyon, to beat Chiero by one stroke at 224.
Smith was joined on the All-NCAC first team by sophomore Ricky Boerner (Hilliard, Ohio/Watterson), who finished fifth with a 228 on the championship, freshman Craig Osterbrock (Wilmington, Ohio/Wilmington), who finished seventh with a 232, and junior Bleu George (Lancaster, Ohio/Fisher Catholic), who placed ninth with a 236. Sophomore Jordan Millice (Cable, Ohio/Triad) rounded out the Tiger scorers, although he shot in the 80s twice in three rounds after claiming medalist honors two weeks earlier in the Wittenberg Invitational, the third NCAC Championship Series event.
All that made a Coach of the Year out of Jeff Roope, Wittenberg's third-year head man. It was the first such honor for Roope and the first for a Wittenberg head coach in more than a decade.
Wittenberg next heads to Hershey, Pa., for the NCAA Division III Championships. Elizabethtown College will host the event at Hershey Links and Hershey Country Club May 11-14.