Falcons Use Third Round Surge to Win Rutherford Intercollegiate

Sunday, April 8

State College, Pa.

All Day

Bowling Green State University

Rutherford Intercollegiate

Falcon Players Accept Team Championship Trophies

April 08, 2012 | Men's Golf

By: by Matthew Daley, Athletic Communications Intern

RUTHERFORD INTERCOLLEGIATE LEADERBOARDS (ALL PDFS)

ROUND 2: TEAM, PLAYER ---- FINAL: TEAM, PLAYER

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The Bowling Green State University men's golf team used consistently strong efforts from all five members of its team to achieve victory for the second time this season when it won the 2012 Rutherford Intercollegiate on Sunday (April 8). The tournament was hosted by Penn State University and was held on PSU's Blue Course.

Each of BGSU's five-member team placed among the top 21 individuals, and the group was led by Parker Hewit. Hewit earned his second career top-five finish and his third top-ten of the season with a 54-hole total of 224. He finished the tournament with a one-over-par 72 after beginning the tournament with back-to-back 76s.

Drew Preston and Charlie Olson each shot 228 to tie for 12th overall. Both shot 77 in the final round. Preston began with rounds of 76 and 75 and earned his second top-20 result of the season. Olson shot 78 and 73 over the first 36 holes to earn his sixth top-20 in the season's eight events to date.

Wes Gates, who owned BGSU's only individual top-five finish of the season prior to this weekend, shot a final-round 75 to end the tournament with a composite 231 (75-81-75). He tied for 21st place with teammate Chris Melvin, who carded rounds of 76, 73 and 82.

Freshman Joe Cooper competed as an individual and shot 240 (77-80-83).

As a team, the Falcons won the tournament with a final tally of 901 after shooting individual rounds of 303, 297 and 301. The team was in third place after the first round and moved up to second place after completion of the second round. BGSU's final round score allowed the team to surpass Indiana University of Pennsylvania and defeat them by seven strokes.

Bowling Green faced two Mid-American Conference foes this weekend. Their final total was 16 shots better than Miami and 20 better than Eastern Michigan.

The Falcons' victory was the team's first since winning the John Piper Intercollegiate last September. It is the team's first win outside of Bowling Green since September 2009. The 2009-10 season is also the last time BGSU won multiple tournaments in the same season.

This weekend's tournament was originally scheduled for 36 holes on Saturday and 18 holes on Sunday. A delayed start on Saturday caused play to be called on Saturday prior to completion of the second round. That round was finished on Sunday prior to the start of the final round.

.Bowling Green now turns its attention to its next tournament. The Falcons compete next Saturday and Sunday (April 14-15) in Columbus, Ohio at the 2012 Kepler Intercollegiate. More details will be available later this week on BGSUFalcons.com.