Oct. 10, 2006
MUNCIE/FRANKLIN, Ind. - The Ohio men's and women's golf teams, competing in tournaments less than 90 miles apart, turned in their final round scorecards Tuesday afternoon.
The Bobcat men, competing in the Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational in Muncie, finished seventh among 17 teams in the tournament with a composite team score of 866. Eastern Kentucky took the team title with an 847, one stroke ahead of Detroit, at the tournament which was held at the Delaware Country Club and hosted by Ball State.
Grant Christman (Columbus, Ohio) led the Bobcat men in the 54-hole tournament with a minus-1 209, which place him third overall among the 92 competitors in the field. He finished just two strokes behind co-champions Jeff Lanier (Belmont) and Shaun McConnell (Eastern Kentucky).
"Overall I was happy because things are kind of coming together, and I think with practice, we'll be at a competitive level just in time for the last tournament of the fall," Christman said.
Christman's rounds of 72, 66 and 71 are the lowest that a Bobcat has turned in this fall. His bogey-free 66 in Monday's second round was a career-best and his 209 was five strokes better that his previous low for a three-round tournament.
"I thought the course set up really well and the greens rolled pretty good," Christman said. "I was happy with my performance yesterday, and today I kind of stumbled out of the gates and then just held on.'
James Ellis (McMurray, Pa.) finished tied for 43rd in the tournament with a 54-hole score of 220 while Ryan Siekmann (Dublin, Ohio) came in one stroke behind in a tie for 47th. Mark Phillips (Hilliard, Ohio) and Mark Cimarolli (Pittsburgh, Pa.) finished tied for 64th with three-round scores of 226.
"As a team we were close," Christman said. "It's just a fine line between playing really well and playing so-so, and I think we are close to playing really well."
The Ohio women competed the last two days in The Shootout at the Legends, an 18-team tournament hosted by The Legends of Indiana Golf Club in Franklin. The Bobcat women tied for 16th in the 54-hole tournament with a composite score of 949
Shanna Siefke (Toledo, Ohio) paced the Bobcat women with a 76 on Tuesday, the second-lowest round for an Ohio golfer this fall, and finished the 54-hole tournament with a team-best 232 composite.
"Anytime you play a tournament and you get three scores in the 70s, you know you are playing some quality golf," Ohio Assistant Coach Jeff Hetler said. "She (Siefke) did it this week, and that's great."
Meredith Waterston (Bloomington, Minn.) finished second on Ohio's card with a 238 in the tournament, followed by Kristen Mautz (Upper Arlington, Ohio) at 241 and Katie Stafford (Phoenix, Ariz.) at 242. Lindsay Bergman (Blacklick, Ohio) recorded Ohio's second-best final round score with a 79 and finished with a 54-hole tally of 252.
"The first two rounds were our best of the fall season, and that only had us in 14th place at the time, so we see that we all need to improve and shoot good rounds so that we can start competing better with some of these teams," Hetler said.
Individual places have not yet been made available.
The Bobcat women will wrap up their fall season when they compete in the Women's Fall Classic on Oct. 16-17 in Batavia, Ohio. The men will be idle until Nov. 4-5, when they draw their fall season to a close in the Big East-MAC Challenge in Winter Garden, Fla.
