Men's Golf continues upward climb into fourth place on final day of 2023 OAC Championships
By Tim Glon
WEST LAFAYETTE — The Ohio Northern men's golf team moved up one more spot into fourth place on the final day of the 2023 Ohio Athletic Conference Championships on Sunday at River Greens Golf Course.
The Polar Bears (44-40 overall) posted a 324-296-298-294—1212 for 72 holes to clinch their second consecutive winning season.
With ONU's 44 victories this season, ONU head coach Chad Bucci becomes the school's all-time winningest coach in men's golf history. In 10 seasons at the helm, Bucci has 322 wins, surpassing the previous mark of 312 by Rick Ponx from 1993-2001.
Northern struggled to a 324 in the first 18 holes on Friday, but bounced back in a big way with an 8-over par 296, a 10-over par 298 and a 6-over par 294 over the next 54 holes.
ONU played the final 54 holes with the second-lowest total in the field to move from eighth place into fourth place.
Freshmen Anthony Naso (Grosse Ile, Mich.) and Bennet Christy (Plymouth, Ind.) tied for 15th out of 45 golfers with 14-over par 302s for Ohio Northern.
Naso was even par over his last 54 holes after posting a first round 86. Christy followed his first round 81 with 74s in each of his next two rounds and a 73 in the final round.
The pair finished just two shots out of All-OAC honors, as the top 14 finishers and ties received All-Conference accolades.
Sophomore Andrew Briars (Maumee/Anthony Wayne) tied for 23rd with an 83-74-76-74—307, freshmen Joey DeSimone (Munroe Falls/Stow-Munroe Falls) was 29th with a 78-82-78-74—312 and sophomore Adam Trigg-Holdman (Cincinnati/Roger Bacon) tied for 30th with an 82-75-78-78—313.
ONU's 1212 was the third-lowest 72-hole total in school history.
Otterbein's Ian Johnston, Capital's Angelo Donato and Muskingum's Cameron Henry finished in a three-way tie for first place in the tournament with 1-over par 289s.
Otterbein won the team title with an 1164. Capital was second with an 1192, Mount Union was third with a 1205 and Muskingum was fifth with a 1214.
Team Standings
1. Otterbein 298-287-289-293—1167, 2. Capital 304-295-293-300—1192, 3. Mount Union 309-296-303-297—1205, 4. Ohio Northern 324-296-298-294—1212, 5. Muskingum 308-308-299-299—1214, 6. John Carroll 313-306-308-293—1220, 7. Baldwin Wallace 304-308-310-304—1226, 8. Heidelberg 311-313-313-311—1248, 9. Marietta 328-325-309-320—1282.
Top 14 Individuals (All-OAC)
t1. Cameron Henry (Muskingum) 77-75-69-68—289, t1. Ian Johnston (Otterbein) 73-71-71-74—289, t1. Angelo Donato (Capital) 78-68-73-70—289, 4. Logan Bratsch (Baldwin Wallace) 75-75-69-71—290, 5. Carter Woodward (Otterbein) 76-69-77-69—291, t6. Nick Congrove (Muskingum) 78-73-70-72—293, t6. Ian Smith (Mount Union) 72-74-76-71—293, t8. Colin Bibler (Otterbein) 73-73-73-76—295, t8. Sam Lahmon (Otterbein) 76-74-71-74—295, t10. Nick Weilding (Marietta) 77-70-74-77—298, t10. Joshua Ferndon (Heidelberg) 76-73-76-73—298, t12. Ben Satterthwaite (Capital) 74-76-72-77—299, t12. Henry Neumann (Baldwin Wallace) 72-72-80-75—299, 14. Adam Filo (Mount Union) 76-74-73-77—300.
Ohio Northern Individual Results
t15. Anthony Naso 86-73-70-73—302, t15. Bennet Christy 81-74-74-73—302, t23. Andrew Briars 83-74-76-74—307, 29. Joey DeSimone 78-82-78-74—312, t30. Adam Trigg-Holdman 82-75-78-78—313.
