April 17, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Although Northwestern's 40th-ranked men's golf team is sitting behind four other Big Ten teams at the 35th Annual Kepler Intercollegiate tournament, the good news is that the Wildcats are only one stroke back of three of those teams -- Indiana, Penn State and Purdue -- and seven shots behind the host Buckeyes. The tournament is being held at Ohio State's Scarlet Course, a recent home of the NCAA National Championships.

Xavier and Toledo lead the tournament, and are 16 and 12 strokes ahead of Northwestern, respectively.

Northwestern is being paced by junior Dillon Dougherty (Woodland, Calif./Woodland), as well as freshman David Merkow (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead Union) and senior T.C. Ford (Covington, La./Mandeville). Dougherty is tied for eighth place after shooting rounds of 75 and 72 (3-over 147).

Merkow and Ford are both sitting in the 28th spot with 7-over 151s. Both Merkow and Ford went 5-over (77) on the first 18 holes and then shot 2-over (74) on their second trip through the course.

Northwestern's top player, senior Tom Johnson (Sacramento, Calif./Del Campo), had a sub-par day, firing rounds of 74 and 78 for an 8-over 152. He is in 36th place. NU's other senior, Casey Strunk (Phoenix, Ariz./Thunderbird), is in 94th place with a 22-over 166 (82-84).

Johnson and Strunk entered this weekend's tournament first and second in season stroke average for the Wildcats -- 73.0 and 73.8, respectively.

The third and final round begins at 8 a.m. Sunday.

                         Robert Kepler Intercollegiate
                         OSU Scarlet Course       Columbus, OH
                         Dates: 04/17 - 04/18     (Today:04-17-2004)
                                   Par:        72
                                   Yardage:  7141

      Fin.   School                   Scores

         1   Xavier University        288  297    585
         3    John Streibich           69   73    142
         7    Miles Maillet            72   74    146
      T 18    Neal Grusczynski         76   73    149
      T 18    Andy Pope                72   77    149
      T 36    Jason Kokrak             75   77    152

         2   Toledo, U. of            294  295    589
      T  1    Brad Heaven              69   72    141
      T  8    Justin Bertsch           75   72    147
      T 23    Doug Batty               75   75    150
      T 44    Richard Kilpatrick       75   78    153
      T 50    Tyler Riley              78   76    154

         3   Ohio State Univ.         295  299    594
         6    Zach Doran               72   73    145
      T 12    Colin Biles              75   73    148
      T 23    Kevin Hall               74   76    150
      T 28    Brett Williams           74   77    151
      T 73    Scott Anderson           79   78    157

         4   Kent State               300  296    596
      T  1    Ryan Yip                 67   74    141
         5    Peter Laws               72   72    144
      T 65    Joe Hurtuk               80   76    156
      T 73    Marc Bourgeois           83   74    157
      T 89    Sean Howell              81   80    161

      T  5   Penn State U.            310  290    600
      T 12    Ted Neville              75   73    148
      T 12    Jason Pannone            78   70    148
      T 28    Marco Poccia             80   71    151
      T 50    Greg Pieczynski          78   76    154
      T 73    Mark Leon                79   78    157

      T  5   Indiana University       299  301    600
         4    Heath Peters             72   71    143
      T  8    Jeff Overton             74   73    147
      T 50    Brad Marek               77   77    154
      T 65    Scott Seibert            76   80    156
      T 78    Ryan Cassidy             78   80    158

      T  5   Kansas State Univ.       297  303    600
      T  8    Aaron Watkins            72   75    147
      T 23    Ben Kern                 74   76    150
      T 28    Tim Moody                74   77    151
      T 36    Josh Persons             77   75    152
      T 83    Matt VanCleave           79   80    159

      T  5   Purdue University        304  296    600
      T 12    Shiv Kapur               74   74    148
      T 12    P. Junhasavasdikul       74   74    148
      T 44    Peter Richardson         81   72    153
      T 59    Johan Edin               75   80    155
      T 78    Dustin Cone              82   76    158

         9   Northwestern             303  298    601
      T  8    Dillon Dougherty         75   72    147
      T 28    David Merkow             77   74    151
      T 28    T.C. Ford                77   74    151
      T 36    Tom Johnson              74   78    152
      T 94    Casey Strunk             82   84    166

        10   Ball State Univ.         297  306    603
      T 18    Brandon Boomsma          72   77    149
      T 28    Patrick Wilkes-Krier     73   78    151
      T 36    Lance Scholl             75   77    152
      T 50    Wayne Denger             77   77    154
      T 59    CD Hockersmith           80   75    155

        11   Illinois, U. of          307  297    604
      T 23    Joe Affrunti             76   74    150
      T 36    Ryan Tendall             78   74    152
      T 36    Garrett Chaussard        77   75    152
      T 44    Patrick Nagle            76   77    153
      T 59    Mike O'Neal              81   74    155

        12   Michigan State U.        303  303    606
      T 18    Andrew Ruthkoski         75   74    149
      T 23    Matt Harmon              76   74    150
      T 50    Mitch Pierce             75   79    154
      T 50    Jimmy Chestnut           77   77    154
      T 65    Ben Fox                  78   78    156

        13   Miami (Ohio)             304  305    609
      T 28    Mike Calkin              73   78    151
      T 36    Ryan Swelin              74   78    152
      T 44    Mark Weghorst            78   75    153
      T 50    Matt Thomas              79   75    154
      T 65    Brent Kriegshauser       79   77    156

        14   Iowa, U. of              300  313    613
      T 18    Jon Feldick              71   78    149
      T 65    Erik Feldick             73   83    156
      T 65    Todd Larson              76   80    156
      T 78    Cade Pleegenkuhle        80   78    158
      T 83    Luke Miller              82   77    159

        15   Marshall University      304  313    617
      T 36    Burke Spensky            75   77    152
      T 44    Shawn Warren             80   73    153
      T 59    Ben Minyard              73   82    155
      T 83    Brad Tweel               76   83    159
      T 94    Steve Ross               85   81    166

        16   Michigan, U. of          308  311    619
      T 12    Christian Vozza          73   75    148
      T 28    Kevin Dore               77   74    151
      T 83    Brandon Duff             77   82    159
      T 89    Will Kendall             81   80    161
        93    Robert Tighe             82   82    164

        17   Eastern Michigan U.      305  316    621
      T 50    Korey Mahoney            74   80    154
      T 59    Kevin Ackford            77   78    155
      T 65    Tyler McDannold          77   79    156
      T 73    Matt Hiatt               78   79    157
      T 78    Thomas Shelton           77   81    158

        18   Wisconsin, U. of         313  313    626
      T 44    Kevin Tassistro          75   78    153
      T 50    Ryan Conn                80   74    154
      T 78    Garrett Jones            78   80    158
      T 89    Brian Brodell            80   81    161
        96    T.J. Blakemore           84   90    174

   Fin.   Individuals            School       Scores

   T 59   Nate Strong            Ohio State    77   78    155
   T 65   Zack Randol            Ohio State    79   77    156
   T 73   Peter Riddell          Ohio State    77   80    157
   T 87   Ryan Hurley            Ohio State    83   77    160
   T 87   Jared Jones            Ohio State    84   76    160
   T 89   David Bieterman        Ohio State    79   82    161
     WD   Justin Collins         Ohio State    WD   WD