Springfield, Ohio – Wittenberg University men’s golf standouts Ben Hogenkamp (Minster, Ohio/Minster) and Craig Osterbrock (Wilmington, Ohio/Wilmington) have earned recognition from Cleveland Golf/Srixon and the Golf Coaches Association of America as NCAA Division III All-America Scholars.
In addition, Wittenberg was among 143 men's golf teams to earn All-Academic Team recognition for classroom performance during the 2012-13 school year. The Tigers were one of just 25 NCAA Division III teams to earn the honor, including three North Coast Athletic Conference members.
Hogenkamp and Osterbrock are among just 21 NCAA Division III student-athletes to earn All-America Scholar honors in 2013. To be nominated, a player must be a junior or senior academically, compete in at least two full years at the collegiate level, participate in at least 70 percent of his team’s competitive rounds or compete in the NCAA Championships, maintain a stroke average of 79.0 or lower and maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.2.
The award caps a tremendous collegiate career for Osterbrock, one of the most accomplished golfers in the program history. Osterbrock was a two-time All-American for the Tigers, in addition to three first-team All-Great Lakes Region and first-team All-NCAC selections. He earned All-America Scholar honors in both 2012 and 2013.
After winning the 2011 NCAC Championship Series and the Bob Nye Award as the conference championship medalist, Osterbrock repeated the feat in 2012 and also added the Dick Gordin Award as the NCAC Player of the Year. His names appears frequently in the program’s record book, including a collegiate-best round of 67 in 2010 that is one stroke shy of the school record. He holds the program mark for two-day score after carding a 135 over two rounds of the Golfweek Fall Invitational in September 2010.
Osterbrock excelled in the classroom as well, and he was recognized for his efforts with a North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Scholar-Athlete Award, given annually to the top male and female senior student-athlete at each member institution. He earned his bachelor’s degree in May 2013 after majoring in English and minoring in Spanish, and he will spend the next year in Brazil as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) through the prestigious United States Fulbright Commission.
Hogenkamp has earned a pair of first-team All-NCAC designations in his three collegiate seasons. In 2011, he finished in a tie for first place in the NCAC Championship Series before losing a playoff with Osterbrock for medalist honors and the Bob Nye Award. Two years later, he was a mainstay in the starting line-up, averaging 75.2 strokes while playing all 28 rounds in the 2012-13 season and winning individual crowns at the Transylvania Fall Invitational and Wooster’s Nye Intercollegiate.
Hogenkamp also continues to do an outstanding job in the classroom as he works toward his degree in business and a minor in economics.
Wittenberg won its fourth straight NCAC Championship and earned its fourth straight trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2013. The Tigers finished 13th in the national championship to put the finishing touches on a 2012-13 campaign that included first place finishes in six of 12 tournaments.
Written By: Ryan Maurer