Tigers Open 2014-15 Season Ranked No. 6 In NCAA Division III
The Golf Coaches Association of America has spoken, and the preseason poll puts Wittenberg sixth in the nation to start the new season.
Springfield, Ohio – Coming off one of the finest seasons in Wittenberg men’s golf history, the Tigers will open the 2014-15 season ranked No. 6 in the NCAA Division III preseason poll released by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).
The Tigers are one of just three teams to earn first-place votes in the preseason poll. Oglethorpe is the No. 1 team after collecting eight of the first-place votes, followed by No. 2 Methodist and No. 3 (tie) Redlands and defending national champion Schreiner, which received six first-place votes. La Verne checks in at No. 5 and Wittenberg rounds out the top half-dozen with one first-place vote.
Wittenberg placed fifth in the 2014 NCAA Division III Tournament, the second-best finish in program history. The tremendous showing at the national championships came after a regular season that featured seven first-place finishes in 12 tournaments, capped by back-to-back tourney titles to win the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship Series for a fifth consecutive year.
Wittenberg has been a fixture in the national polls over the last five years, highlighted by the program’s first-ever No. 1 ranking in October 2013. The Tigers are the only program from the state of Ohio even receiving votes in the first GCAA poll of 2014-15, and one of just two NCAC programs to make an appearance. Allegheny received three points and is listed amongst “Others Receiving Votes.”
Wittenberg Head Coach Jeff Roope, who broke new ground in May 2014 as the first person to hold NCAC Coach of the Year designations for the men and women concurrently, has eight letterwinners back on the roster in 2014-15, led by senior All-Americans John Chaney (Shaker Heights, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) and Alex Andrews (Kirtland, Ohio/Gilmour Academy), and fellow first-team All-Great Lakes Region honoree Jared Wissinger (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson), also a senior. The Tigers will open the season at Transylvania, which opens the season ranked No. 8, Sept. 6-7.
Written By: Ryan Maurer