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Ohio's Cimarolli Wins Big East/MAC Challenge
Nov. 6, 2005
Final Results (PDF)
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. - With a five-under-par 67 on Tuesday, Ohio University junior Mark Cimarolli won the Big East/MAC Challenge by three strokes for his first collegiate title. "This is the best I've been playing all year," said Cimarolli, who also won a tournament while spending last summer at home in Pittsburgh. "I made a swing change back in December that I've been trying this year and it's been working." Cimarolli finished the two-day event with a 54-hole score of 207, six strokes lower than his previous three-round best of 213. On Saturday, he followed an opening-round 75 with a career-best and tournament-low 65, just one stroke shy of the school single-round record set by Erik Herberth in 2001. "The last two rounds, Mark just played awesome," said Bobcat head coach Bob Cooley. "His putter was working really well and he just wasn't making any mistakes. He was hitting the ball in the fairway and putting the ball on the greens and making some putts." Ohio's Ryan Siekmann also had a strong showing in the 11-team event. The junior from Dublin, Ohio, placed 11th out of 60 individual competitors with an even-par score of 216 (71-71-74). Bobcat junior Grant Christman (Columbus, Ohio) tied for 24th at 222 (75-71-76) while senior Brian Bickle (Gallipolis, Ohio) and junior Blake Russell (Dublin, Ohio) both tied for 37th with scores of 226. As a team, Ohio held on to its third-place spot with a 287 in the final round. The Bobcats' three-round total of 866 (294-285-287) was 14 strokes behind tournament winner Marquette's score of 852 (291-285-276) and just three strokes shy of runner-up South Florida's 863 (275-298-290). Of the four Mid-American Conference schools competing on the par-72, 7,370-yard Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge course outside of Orlando, Ohio led the way as Northern Illinois finished fourth at 870 (296-284-290), Akron placed fifth with an 873 (287-293-293) and Bowling Green took seventh at 881 (294-303-284). The event concluded the fall season for the Bobcats, who will resume play in the spring looking to claim their first MAC title since 1980. "We're going to take some time off and let the guys work on their grades," Cooley said about the team's upcoming plans. "When they come back after winter break, we're going to work a lot on their short games and just prepare for the spring." "Right now we're going to focus on school and put the clubs away for a little bit," said Cimarolli, who became the first Ohio men's golfer to win a college tournament since Herberth's record-breaking performance (202 over three rounds) at the Xavier Invitational in October of 2001. "We know we have a good, solid team so I'm eager to see how well we do this spring." |
