GREENSBORO, NC - The Wittenberg Tigers got a close look at the course where the 2014 NCAA Division III Tournament is scheduled to take place. Clearly, the Tiger players took quite a liking to the historic Donald Ross-designed course at the Grandover Resort & Conference Center.
Wittenberg staged a tremendous Day 2 rally at the NCAA Championship Preview, hosted by Greensboro College, to move from eighth place to a tie for second place in the final standings. The 11th-ranked Tigers posted the second-lowest score of the final round to finish with a two-day total of 598, tied with 13th-ranked Guilford and eight strokes behind sixth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan.
The Tigers and Guilford topped preseason No. 1 Transylvania by three strokes in the final team standings, which included 18 squads from across the country. Host Greensboro, the 2011 NCAA Division III champion and the 16th-ranked team in the nation currently, rounded out the top five.
All five Wittenberg players finished in the top 31 in the 90-player field, led by junior Jared Wissinger (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson), who established new collegiate bests with a 70 in the second round and a two-round total of 147 to place in a fifth-place tie. Junior Alex Andrews (Kirtland, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) was right behind, finishing with a 149 to finish 13th.
Rounding things out were senior Ben Hogenkamp (Minster, Ohio/Minster) with a 151, good for 20th place, and seniors David Wetterich (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) and Tyler Yaple (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) with matching totals of 152. They were in a group tied for 31st in the final standings.