Corban's Joey Duwe captured medalist honors with a 1-stroke win on Tuesday.
Concordia Claims Team Title; Corban’s Duwe Medalist at NCU Invite
BLUE RIVER, Ore. –For the third time in as many conference tournaments, a new team has taken the top spot in a Cascade Collegiate Conference golfing event as Concordia won the Northwest Christian Invitational wire-to-wire with a 22-stroke victory in the 3-round tourney held at the Tokatee Golf Course on March 22-23.
Concordia (306-299-303—908) fired an 18-over 306 in the opening round for a 10-stroke lead over Corban and quickly expanded the margin with the tournament’s only sub 300 by carding a 299 in the second round of play on Monday. The Cavs capped the performance with a 303, the lowest round recorded on Tuesday.
Trailing NCU by two strokes entering the final round of play, Corban (316-308-306—930) reduced its team score in each round, culminating with a 306 in the final tour, to jump from third place to second in the team standings.
Northwest Christian (320-302-315—937) held on to third place ahead of Simpson University (324-312-312—948) and C of I (318-313-324—955). Warner Pacific (339-314-340—993) rounded out the team scoring in sixth place.
In the individual race, a 1-under 71 by Corban’s Joey Duwe (76-73-71—220) catapulted the Warrior to medalist honors. In fourth place and trailing the leader by three strokes entering the second day of play, Duwe made up the difference with the lone sub-par round of the afternoon to overcome NCU’s Justin Ahrens (76-70-75—221), who finished in second place after carding a 3-over 75 in the final round.
A pair of Concordia golfers, Jed Dalton (74-74-75—223) and Jonny Miller (73-74-76—223) tied Simpson’s Micah Eppler (77-73-73—223) for third place.
After finding himself in 19th place through the first 18 holes, Warner Pacific’s Andrew Johnson (82-72-75—229) eked into the top 10 with a 75 on Tuesday, finishing in ninth place to lead the Knights. Two strokes back of Johnson, Casey Dyck (75-80-76—231) led the C of I contingent in 11th place.
The team victory was the first for Concordia this season. Northwest Christian won the team crown at the Concordia Invitational held in October while The College of Idaho claimed the team title at the Warner Pacific Invitational held in September. The final regular season CCC tournament, the College of Idaho Invite, is slated to get under way on April 12-13 at River Bend Golf Course in Wilder, Idaho.