The Bethany men’s golf team is no stranger to winning an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship. The program won the title in 2007, but since the school was going through a transition to NCAA Division III from junior college, the victory didn’t come with a bid to the national tournament.
The 2013 Vikings’ team had a great chance of adding another trophy to the case as they held a commanding 28-shot lead going into Saturday’s third and final round of the UMAC Men’s Golf Championship at the Jewel Golf Club in Lake City. They wound up extending that margin to 40 strokes by tournament’s end, giving BLC its second conference crown.
This championship will come with a trip to the national tournament as they have automatically qualified for the 2014 NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championship to take place May 13-16 at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C.
The men’s golf team becomes the second Bethany team to qualify for an NCAA tournament following the cue of the softball squad last spring.
UMAC Men’s Golf Championship Results
Bethany shot a 3-round total of 942 with Crown coming in second at 982. Northwestern was third at 984 and North Central finished fourth at 988.
Austin Snow started out strong on Thursday in the opening round of the tournament by carding a 2-over par 73 to hold a 3-shot lead. He held on to the lead after Friday and after shooting a 74 on Saturday became the wire-to-wire winner of the individual tournament to earn conference medalist honors with a 3-day total of 223.
Snow’s teammate, Jon Pederson, earned All-Conference recognition by coming in third place with an overall score of 230. Andrew Aukes finished tied for ninth (243) and Josh Pederson was tied for 12th (247).