Men's Golf At NCAC Championships

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Andy Bonar

The Wittenberg men's golf team put the wraps on a solid 2004 season with a fourth-place finish at the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament, which was hosted by Ohio Wesleyan at Dornoch Golf Club.

The three teams that finished ahead of Wittenberg in the final standings are all ranked in the top-20 nationally, and all three will be making their second straight appearance in the NCAA Division III Championships next week.

The Tigers gave nationally ranked Ohio Wesleyan, Allegheny and Denison a scare, however, finishing the first day on top of the tightly bunched standings by one stroke. But on Day 2, the young Tigers, who counted scores from a junior, two sophomores and a freshman, couldn't maintain the pace and slipped back to fourth place.

Junior Andy Bonar (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) proved his mettle once again, finishing a career-best third in the championship tournament to claim his second straight first-team All-NCAC award. He carded a two-day total of 151 to finish four strokes behind the tournament winner.

Freshman Scott Aker (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee), the co-medalist a week earlier in the Ohio Wesleyan Strimer Invitational on the same course, finished 12th in the NCAC Tournament with a 158. That finish was good for Honorable Mention All-NCAC honors.

Rounding out the scoring for the Tigers were sophomores Kristopher Schmelzer (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) with a 160 and Clinton Anderson (Mechanicsburg, Ohio/Mechanicsburg) with a 161. Schmelzer finished 14th, which qualifies for Honorable Mention All-NCAC, and Anderson, who was a second-team All-NCAC honoree in 2003 after finishing 10th, came in 16th in 2004. Senior Adam Knowlton (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) was the Tigers' fifth golfer, and he concluded his career with a 174, good for 37th place.