SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tigers put the finishing touches on a tremendous fall 2009 season with a first-place finish in the 15-team Wittenberg Invitational at Windy Knoll Golf Club.
The Tigers started the fall campaign with a big win at the Denison Fall Invitational and followed that with a pair of victories in the first two North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship Series events at Ohio Wesleyan and Hiram. Along the way, Wittenberg moved into the national rankings for the first time in more than 15 years, while adding a seventh-place finish in the 20-team Rhodes Invitational (which included 12 nationally ranked teams) and a second-place finish at the DePauw University Small College Classic. The win on their home course gave the Tigers four wins in six starts on the fall.
Wittenberg led Transylvania, another team ranked nationally, by three strokes after the first round of the one-day, 36-stroke competition. The gap widened by the end of Round 2, as the Tigers followed up their 302 with a 296 on the par-71, 6834-yard links-style course. Transylvania finished second at 605, seven strokes behind Wittenberg and a comfortable 14 strokes ahead of perennial national powerhouse Otterbein.
The Tigers' top individual finishers were freshman Craig Osterbrock (Wilmington, Ohio/Wilmington) and sophomore Jordan Millice (Cable, Ohio/Triad), who tied for fourth place with matching 150s. They were followed closely by junior Bleu George (Lancaster, Ohio/Fisher Catholic) with a 151, good for sixth, sophomore Ricky Boerner (Hilliard, Ohio/Watterson) with a 152, good for ninth, and sophomore Ben Smith (North Bend, Ohio/Elder) with a 153, good for 12th.
Wittenberg's B team tied for sixth with Ohio Dominican's A team at 641. FreshmanLane Craig (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) finished 20th with a 158, followed by freshman Jonny Price (Dublin, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) in 22nd with a 159, freshman Bradley Shepherd (Dublin, Ohio/Watterson) in 35th with a 162, seniorSteve Nevius (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) in 42nd with a 164 and freshman Kyle Dickerson (Indianapolis, Ind./Ben Davis) in 52nd with a 168.