CLAYTON, Ind. — Ranked No. 1 in the Great Lakes Region heading into the weekend, the Wittenberg Tigers came on strong on Day 2 of the DePauw University Small College Classic to finish second behind the host Tigers.
DePauw covered its home course with remarkable consistency, carding team scores of 292 and 293 en route to a 585 and a 17-stroke win over Wittenberg, which had won the only other head-to-head meeting between the two teams in the 2009-10 season at Denison the first weekend of the season. The Wittenberg Tigers rallied from a 305 on Day 1 to post a 297 in the final round on the par-71, 6700-yard course.
While Wittenberg was unable to keep pace with DePauw, the Tigers did manage to leapfrog Otterbein, which came into the weekend ranked third in the region. The Cardinals went from a 303 on opening day to a 308 to finish nine strokes behind Wittenberg after leading the Tigers by two on Saturday night.
Individually, junior Bleu George (Lancaster, Ohio/Fisher Catholic) turned in a tremendous second round 72 to move up to ninth with a two-day total of 150. Sophomores Ricky Boerner (Hilliard, Ohio/Watterson) and Jordan Millice (Cable, Ohio/Triad) finished with matching 152s, good for an 11th-place tie.
A pair of freshmen rounded out the Tiger scorers. Bradley Shepherd (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson) carded rounds of 78 and 75 to finish at 153 in 17th place, whileCraig Osterbrock (Wilmington, Ohio/Wilmington) recovered from an 81 in the opening round to shoot a two-over 73 and finish 18th with a 154.
The 2009 fall season comes to an end Tuesday on the Tigers' home course of Windy Knoll. The Wittenberg Invitational is a 36-hole competition, featuring an outstanding field that includes nationally ranked Transylvania.