COLUMBUS, IN – Wittenberg's men's and women's golf teams competed in the 2024 Dan Quayle Match Play Tournament on Sept. 29-30. Hosted by DePauw University, the two-day, three-round event took place at the 72-par Otter Creek Golf Course in Indiana.
On the men's side, the tournament began with stroke play and both Wittenberg and Denison turned in top scores. However, Denison carded a four-under team score of 284 to earn the tournament's top seed, while the Tigers recorded a one-under 287 to earn the second seed going into match play.
After play was suspended Sunday with the semifinals unfinished, Wittenberg came away with a win over DePauw and would square off with Denison in the finals.
In the finals, both teams secured three wins, with the championship coming down to tiebreakers. During match play, both teams were even in the number of holes won as well, and the tiebreaker ended up going to the winner of the stroke-play round, which was Denison.
The Tigers finished second out of eight teams, including two from DePauw, two from Wabash, then Spalding and Rose-Hulman.
Leading Wittenberg were Mitch Bolte (Newark, OH / Newark) and Mark Sulek (Delaware, OH / Hayes), shooting a four-under par 68 and a three-under par 69, respectively during stroke play finishing second and third overall. Caleb Domitrovich (McDonald, OH / McDonald) and Ryan Miller (Dublin, OH / Jerome) both shot a 75 in stroke play tying them for 18th overall, Mikey Schutte (Cincinnati, OH / Elder) carded a 76 for a 24th place tie, and Jake Yarbrough (Dublin, OH / Jerome) had a 77 for a 31st place tie.
On the women's side, Wittenberg placed third out of six teams with a total score of 337. DePauw, which entered two teams, placed first, Saint Mary's of Indiana was second, then Wittenberg, followed by Rose-Hulman, the second DePauw team, and Spalding, which didn't finish the match.
Leaders for Wittenberg were Addie Yarbrough (Dublin, OH / Jerome), who shot an 81 in stroke place for an eighth-place finish, followed by Anna Sinclair (Brownsburg, IN / Brownsburg) who carded in 83 for 13thoverall in the tournament. Hillary Humbaugh (Haubstadt, IN / Gibson Southern) shot an 86 to tie for 20thplace, Halley McNair (Cincinnati, OH / Bishop Fenwick) carded an 87 to tie for 23rd overall, Izzy Selby (Cincinnati, OH / Seton) an 88 for 25th place and Josie Adamson (Cincinnati, OH / Oak Hills) a 92 for 28thplace overall.
"It was really some hard-fought matches for all of them," said David Wetterich, Wittenberg golf coach. "It was a good tournament for both our men's and women's – we played some good teams and contended. We are looking forward to our next tournament at home. We hope to finish strong."
Both teams will host the Jeff Roope Invitational tournament this coming weekend on Sunday, Oct. 20 and Monday, Oct. 21, at the Springfield Country Club.