Ohio University men's golf coach Bob Cooley knows his team well.
The coach was expecting a top five finish, and he got exactly what he was looking for as the Bobcats took fourth place in the Rutherford Intercollegiate at the Penn State Blue Course.
Ohio was paced by sophomore Mark Cimarolli, who tied his career best, carding a 71-74-70 for a 215 total, which was good enough for a tenth place finish.
Only six strokes separated the Ohio squad, as junior Brian Elsea fired a 217, fellow junior Jon Johasky shot a 220, and sophomores Blake Russell and Ryan Siekmann both shot 221.
We played pretty well. We had some good rounds and some not so good rounds
said coach Bob Cooley. Consistency was our strength this weekend. Everyone was within a few shots of each other.
While the course itself was not extremely difficult, the team said the par-3's were playing particularly tricky this weekend.
Ohio's fourth place finish gives them some much-needed confidence as they head into the Mid-American Conference Championships this weekend. The Bobcats finished second in the MACs last year and are looking to bring home their first MAC title since 1980. The team felt like this weekend was good practice for the conference tourney, which will begin this Thursday.
This weekend was good because we got a feel of what we need to work on because we had last weekend off. So I think playing and figuring out what we need to work on was a good thing this weekend Johasky said.
Penn State, which hosted the tournament, won the event with a team total of 843. Maryland came away with second, firing an 861, and Towson finished in third at 866. Ohio finished just one stroke behind Towson, shooting a 54-hole total of 867.
Maryland's Jon Eades was the individual medalist, posting a 16-under-par 200. His nearest competitor, Penn State's Robert Rohanna, was seven strokes back.
The Bobcats can take their momentum from this tournament into next weekend, when they will be heading to The Medallion Course in Westerville, Ohio, for the MAC Championships.
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Joe Rudemiller
