Oct. 5, 2006

Men's Golf Weekly Release in PDF Format
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This Week
The University of Northern Colorado men's golf team returns to action Oct. 8-9 when they compete at the Windon Memorial Classic hosted by Northwestern University and held at the Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Ill.

The meet marks the return to the Chicagoland area for Northern Colorado head coach Wally Goodwin, who was the head coach at Northwestern from 1981-87 before moving onto Stanford and eventually Northern Colorado.

This year's field has some tough competition and nationally-ranked teams including Colorado (ranked 42nd nationally), Illinois (#50), Kansas (#29), Kent State (#46), Michigan State (#43), New Mexico, North Florida, Northwestern, SMU, Toledo and Western Illinois. Northwestern (#34) is the two-time defending champion at the event which was not held last year due to a conflict on NU's schedule.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado fired a third round low combined score of 277 (-11) to jump from ninth place and finish fourth overall out of 17 teams at the Purple & Red Invitational hosted by Weber State University and the University of Utah and held at Valley View Golf Course.

The final round score was seven shots lower than the next closest team on Tuesday (Cal Poly) as the Bears finished at +3 for the event, just four strokes behind Hartford and Utah, who tied at -1; Hartford won the tournament on a tie-breaker while Cal Poly finished third, three strokes ahead of the Bears.

Northern Colorado's four individual golfers who had scores count on the final day of play were fantastic, with senior Jon Stecher leading the way with a final round 67 (-5). Stecher had rounds of 77, 70 and 67 at the event to finish tied for seventh overall. Stecher tied with three golfers, including Nic Van Vuuren of Utah Valley State, last season's Division I Independent Championships medalist. Cal Poly's Dave Lewinski was the individual medalist, finishing at -8, six strokes ahead of Stecher. Sophomore Jordan Ensrud fired a final round 68 (-4) to finish at 217 (+1) for the three-day event; he tied for 15th overall. Junior Eric Higgins was 23rd overall after a final round 72 (E); he had rounds of 73, 73 and 72 in the two-day event. Senior Kyle Sullivan tied Higgins for 23rd overall after his final round score of 70 (-2). Sophomore Derek Hofmeister finished 87th overall (238, +22). a

As a team that Bears topped 13 schools including day one leader San Francisco, regional rival Wyoming and three schools associated with the Big Sky Conference - Weber State (A & B teams), Sacramento State and Idaho State.

National Rankings
Northern Colorado finished the 2005-06 season ranked 102nd nationally out of 292 total Division I teams by Golfweek. The Bears were ranked 99th at the end of the fall season, and were 93rd following the 2004-05 season. The Bears are 174th in the latest Golfweek rankings (Oct. 1).

Next Up
The Bears are back in action on Oct. 16-17 when they compete at The Prestige at PGA West in La Quinta, Cailf. It marks the third consecutive season the team has competed in the prestigious event that features some of the top teams in the country.