WILMINGTON, Ill. – Behind Jack Busch a strong second day, the Olivet Nazarene University men’s golf team ran away from the field to claim its first-ever CCAC Championship. The Tigers cruised to a 19-stroke advantage by the end to win the conference crown at Cinder Ridge Tuesday afternoon.
It is the program’s first conference championship since the 1991 team won the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference title of the NCAA Division III ranks.
ONU sat in the middle of a log jam at the top of the leaderboards following Monday’s opening round with a 304, trailing St. Ambrose, who grabbed the team lead at 302, and sitting two strokes ahead of Roosevelt in third place at 306. This was the setup for what proved to be a three-team race for the conference title over the 36 final holes, all played on Tuesday.
And Tuesday was where the Tigers would shine, primarily behind Busch, who fired consecutive rounds of 2-under 70 to lead the ONU charge. Those two rounds, combined with a 75 in his round Monday, helped the Naperville, Ill., native run away from the field to claim individual medalist honors by eight strokes at 215.
Busch had plenty of help from his teammates, with Jordan Evans joining him on the all-tournament team by tying for third place at 225 thanks to a 1-under 71 in the final round. Lorenzo Mariotti was just one stroke back at 226 to earn a tie for fifth place. Rounding out the scoring for ONU was Chris Brown, who nearly cracked the top 10 with his 11th place finish at 234. Hunter Trainor took sole possession of 21st place with his 242.
The Purple & Yellow Gold would grab the lead with a second-round 303 and wrapped up the championship with a closing 293 to finish with a tournament-best 900. SAU slid into third place with a 312 before recovering with a 305 to overtake Roosevelt for second with a 919. The Lakers (306-307-308) finished third in the nine-team tournament with a 921.
The conference title secures the Tigers’ spot in the upcoming 2024 NAIA Men’s Golf Championships. The four-day national tournament will be played May 21-24 at the Dalton Golf and Country Club in Dalton, Ga.
–ONU—
*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu
