COLUMBUS, Ohio - After dominating the prestigious Gordin Classic back-to-back years, the Wittenberg Tigers put together a solid, but unspectacular, set of scores to finish seventh in the 12-team field assembled in 2014.
Guilford ran away with the team title, posting a blistering three-round total of 872 to outdistance the rest of the field by 17 strokes. Rhodes led a tight cluster of teams between second and 10th place, as just 23 strokes separated the teams in those positions.
Wittenberg carded rounds of 305 and 304 on the opening day to stand 10th heading into the third and final round on Tuesday. The Tigers battled back to card the second-best score of the third round, a 293, to move up to seventh place, just two back of Berry and Southwestern in fifth place.
Individually, the Tigers showed tremendous consistency, but no one went low in the tournament, unlike the medalist, Ty Palmer of Guilford. He opened with back-to-back rounds of six-under-par 66 and coasted to a nine-stroke victory with a three-round total of 206.
Senior John Chaney (Gates Mills, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) led the Tigers with rounds of 76, 77 and two-under-par 70 in the final round to place 14th with a score of 223. Senior Alex Andrews (Kirtland, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) was right behind with a 225 to finish 17th.
Chaney's 70 was the only round turned in by a Wittenberg player that was lower than 74, and no Tiger scored worse than 77 in the competition. Junior Sam Geise (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) and senior Jared Wissinger (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) were next with matching scores of 227 to finish tied for 24th, and sophomore Sam Stilwell (Dominion, Va./Sterling) rounded things out in 33rd place with a score of 230.
Hosted by Ohio Wesleyan since 1991, the Gordin Classic annually matches 12 of the best NCAA Division III teams, featuring most, if not all, of the top 10 finishers from the previous spring's NCAA Division III championship tournament. The tournament is named after longtime Ohio Wesleyan coach Dick Gordin, who served as the Bishops' golf coach from 1955-93.
Written By: Ryan Maurer