After the third round of the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships got cancelled due to weather for both golf teams, the men and women came back out Sunday and finished fourth and second, respectively, in the conference.
The 13th-ranked women’s team fared better than the men to close the tournament as they shot a 980 overall and finished second, only behind the sixth-ranked Wittenberg University.
The team finished the first two rounds with a score of 652 behind fourth and fifth place finishes by sophomores Larisa Luloff and Rachele Miller, respectively. Senior Kenzlie Westerfield shot a 165 which landed her in the top ten at ninth, while first-year Anna Foley and sophomore Danielle Smith tied at 11th at 169.
Miller believed the team’s short-game was what led to their strong performance in the first two rounds.
“We worked extremely hard on short game during practice last week,” Miller said. “This paid off in the tournament as many of my teammates had some of their best performance in putting and chipping this past weekend.”
The women’s third round was rained out just like the men, so they also only had 18 holes to make a comeback on Wittenberg. However, Wittenberg extended their lead as they finished with a 944.
Luloff improved her overall standing as she finished third with a 236. Miller remained at fifth with a score of 244. Both women received first-team all NCAC honors.
Westerfield and Foley each found their way on the second-team all NCAC group with ninth and 11th place finishes, respectively. Smith finished 13th with a 225.
The men’s team started out strong after the first two days after finishing the first second rounds with a score of 304. Wittenberg University led the way with 577 points.
First-year Jason Miller finished the first two rounds with a 148, and junior Andrew Derringer shot the second best score of the team with a 150. Senior Quinn Smith shot a 153, which was good for 13th place, and junior Jackson Mihevc shot a 157. Wittenberg’s Garret Bickley led the field with a 142.
Miller was pleased after the team finished their first two rounds, but he knew there was a lot of work to be done to reach their goals.
“I said last week that if we all our focused in we can be one of the best teams in conference,” Miller said. “We definitely showed that this weekend, but we still have to grind out this next weekend.”
After the third round was rained out, the Tigers had 18 holes to try to break into Wittenberg’s lead. They did not improve on their first weekend standing, however, and shot a final round 320 to finish fourth overall with a score of 928.
Wittenberg won the event with a score of 878, Allegheny College was second with a 918 and Kenyon College placed third with a 925.
Miller kept his strong play going as he finishing seventh with a score of 227, which gave him second team all-NCAC honors. Derringer joined him on the second team with a tenth place finish and a score of 229.
First-year Nick Burris finished 21st with a 237, Smith fell to 25th with a 238 and Mihevc placed 31st with a 241.
Overall, Mihevc was disappointed with how the team performed this year and knows that the team needs to take this offseason seriously if they want to contend next year.
“I thought we underachieved,” Mihevc said. “We couldn’t put it all together. The spring golf season goes by really fast, and even though we played well in the first two rounds of conference, we kind of blew up in the last round and finished lower than we wanted. We all need to get better next year.”
The conference championships serves as the end of the season for both teams.