Jesse Heinly will enter the CCC Championship six strokes behind NCU's Tyler Falk in the chase for the 2013-14 Golfer of the Year honors.
Cavs sink seventh straight CCC title
RESULTS
SPRINGFIELD, Ore.—With one of the best three-round scores in conference history, the Concordia men's golf team ran away with the team championship at the Northwest Christian Invitational on Tuesday, clinching the regular-season Cascade Collegiate Conference championship for the seventh straight season.
Concordia (288-283-299—870) led by 28 strokes after the first two rounds of play at the Springfield Country Club, and despite turning in an 11-over 299 in the final go-around for its highest score of the tournament, the Cavs easily held off Northwest Christian (294-305-307—906) for the team championship.
The regular-season championship is determined by the total number of strokes tallied over four conference tournaments. The Cavs won three of the four tournaments outright while tying Northwest Christian at the Warner Pacific Invite.
Concordia finished with a four-tournament total of 3,559 while NCU finished second in the standings with a 3,653, nearly 100 strokes back of the Cavaliers. Corban University (3,741), Warner Pacific (3,810), Oregon Tech (3,839) and College of Idaho (3,887) rounded out the CCC regular-season standings.
The conference teams will now turn their attention to the CCC Championships, the fifth conference event of the season that takes place April 21-22 in Nampa, Idaho. The culminating event will determine the owner of an automatic bid into the NAIA National Championships.
The winning team after three rounds of play at the Ridgecrest Golf Course will advance to the NAIA National Championships which will be held in Daytona Beach, Fla., from May 13-16.
Concordia's three-round score of 870 represents the fourth best in CCC history. The Cavs hold the top three all-time team scores with a program-best 847 set during the 2007 season.
On Tuesday, the top four Cavalier scorers placed inside the top eight in the individual standings. Kolton Kyne (72-71-73—216) finished even par for 54 holes of play on the 6,595-yard course to place second overall and just two strokes behind tournament champion and 2010-11 CCC Golfer of the Year Tyler Falk (72-70-72—214) of Northwest Christian.
Heinly (74-69-77—220), the 2011-12 CCC Golfer of the Year, tied for third place with teammate Josh Vizcaino (71-74-75—220). Ryan Melnychuk (82-69-74—225) ended the tourney tied for eighth place as CU's No. 4 competitor.
Following NCU in the team standings were Walla Walla C.C. (300-303-311—914) in third place, Corban University (304-309-310—923) in fourth and Warner Pacific College (312-323-313—948) in fifth.
College of Idaho's Kyle DeLorey (74-74-74—222) registered three straight 2-over 74s to place sixth overall while Corban was led by Jared Lambert (71-77-77—225), who tied for eighth place.