Sept. 13, 2005
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Ohio University juniors Grant Christman (Columbus, Ohio) and Mark Cimarolli (Pittsburgh) posted career-best scores to help the Bobcat men's golf team finish third at the 5th Annual John Piper Intercollegiate.
In the 13-team tournament, Ohio finished 13 strokes behind host Bowling Green, which set single-round (275), 36-hole (562) and 54-hole school records. The Falcons completed the two-day event with a team score of 845 (287-275-283), compared to 854 (288-283-283) for runner-up Marquette and 858 (284-283-291) for the Bobcats.
"Overall, I think we played pretty well," said Ohio head coach Bob Cooley on his team's season-opening performance. "You couldn't ask for better course conditions or weather for a college golf tournament. We played the first two rounds pretty well but we struggled a little bit today."
Christman (69-68-77) and Cimarolli (72-70-72) both tied for seventh with scores of 214 on the 7,064-yard, par-72 Stone Ridge Golf Club course. Bobcat senior Brian Bickle (Gallipolis, Ohio), playing in his first tournament since the 2004 Mid-American Conference Championships, finished just one stroke back (72-72-71) in a tie for 12th place out of 70 individual competitors. The 215 marked Bickle's best 54-hole score since October of 2002.
Ohio junior Blake Russell (Dublin, Ohio) finished in a tie for 24th at 221 (71-77-73) and junior Ryan Siekmann (Dublin, Ohio) came in with a 225 (77-73-75), tying him for 36th. Also competing for the Bobcats but not contributing to the team score were seniors Jon Johasky (Lower Burrell, Pa.) and Brian Elsea (Columbus, Ohio). Johasky posted a 224 (71-79-74) to tie for 32nd while Elsea tied for 46th at 228 (77-77-74).
Oakland's Jonathan Pauli won individual medalist honors with a 10-under 206 (68-67-71). Marquette's Mike Van Sickle finished second at 208 (69-70-69) and Bowling Green's Brad Dearsman placed third with a 212 (72-69-71).
Finishing behind Ohio in the team standings were Oakland (867), Detroit (884), Bowling Green-B (885), Evansville (886), Wright State (888), DePaul (889), Dayton (892), Wisconsin-Green Bay (894), IPFW (920) and Youngstown State (926).
The Bobcats will now have almost a month to prepare for their next tournament, the Xavier Invitational on Oct. 10-11. "We need to work on our short game," said Cooley. "We weren't very good around the greens and we just didn't putt the ball very well."
