Tigers Finish Second In 2014 NCAC Championship Series
For second straight week, Wittenberg comes up a few strokes short in NCAC Championship Series event.
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. - The Wittenberg Tigers kept up their pursuit until the very end, but they couldn't quite catch the DePauw Tigers. As a result, Wittenberg wound up second in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship Series for a second consecutive year.
The Tigers held a lead after the first of four rounds of golf over the last two weeks - two at Twin Bridges Golf Club and two at Crawforsdville Country Club - but DePauw pulled away to claim its third straight league title. DePauw finished with a cumulative score of 1,279 strokes, 13 ahead of Wittenberg in the final standings.
2014 NCAC Championship Series Final Standings
The NCAC Championship Series title earns DePauw the league's automatic berth in the 2014 NCAA Division III Tournament, which will be hosted by Oglethorpe University in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., May 13-16. Wittenberg, ranked 22nd nationally and fourth in the Great Lakes Region, will have to sweat out the at-large selection process for a second straight year - in 2013, the Tigers were one of the top ranked teams left out of the field.
Wittenberg carded rounds of 325 and 323 to post a total score of 648 in the NCAC Championship Series #2. DePauw led the way with a two-day total of 638.
Individually, freshman Macy Hubbard (Mason, Ohio/Mason) led the way for Wittenberg with a 154, good for second place. She was followed by junior Nicole Waers (Canton, Ohio/Perry) in eighth place with a 163, sophomore Allie Lawwill (Springboro, Ohio/Middletown) in ninth with a 165, senior Deanna Michalishyn (Mason, Ohio/Mason) in 10th with a 166 and junior Carolyn Wong (Naperville, Ill./Central) in 14th with a 170.
Hubbard and Waers claimed first-team All-NCAC honors, while Lawwill and Wong earned spots on the second team. Michalishyn was named honorable mention for her performance in the second event.
Head Coach Jeff Roope was named NCAC Coach of the Year for the first time, and he doubled up by claiming the same award on the men's side for the fifth straight.