Contact: Greg Murphy
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Cleveland State shot a final round 299 in difficult conditions to win the John Piper Invitational on Tuesday afternoon.
The Vikings entered today's final round with a three-shot lead after carding rounds of 296 and 291 yesterday. CSU's final round 299 was tied for the second lowest round of the day, topped only by Oakland which shot 298.
CSU finished with a 54-hole total of 886 (296-291-299) at the par-72, 7,044-yard Stone Ridge G.C.
Teams battled high winds, wet weather and a one hour delay to start the final round.
It is CSU's first tournament title since the Vikings won the 2011 Horizon League Championship and first in-season tournament win since CSU claimed its own tournament title in 2007 at Sand Ridge G.C.
"The guys really battled and hung in there all day with everything we had to fight through," head coach Steve Weir said. "We started the season with the goal of winning every tournament we entered and to be able to win our third tournament out shows just how hard these guys have been working."
Oakland finished as runner-up, five shots behind CSU at 891. Green Bay and Wright State tied for third at 894 and were followed by Bowling Green (902), Evansville (904), Valparaiso (907), Ashland (910), Youngstown State (929) and Mount Union (941).
Andrew Bailey carded a final round 72 to finish third overall at three-over-par 219 (73-74-72). Bailey finished the tournament with 11 birdies, the second most in the field.
Michael Klaric carded a final round 70, the lowest round in the 62 player field today, and stormed all the way up the leaderboard to finish tied for fourth place at 220 (79-71-70). He began the day tied for 17th place.
Jon Riemer tied for 13th place at 225 (72-72-81), while Michael Balcar tied for 23rd place after rounds of 72-80-77 (229). Nick Paxos tied for 49th place at 235 (81-74-80).
Bowling Green's Wes Gates won the event at 206 (66-69-71), besting runner-up Gene Kiela III of Green Bay by 12 shots.
The Vikings are next in action on Oct. 1-2 when CSU hosts its own invitational at Canterbury G.C.
CSU RESULTS
3. Andrew Bailey, 73-74-72 -219
T-4. Michael Klaric, 79-71-70 -220
T-13. Jon Riemer, 72-72-81 -225
T-23. Michael Balcar, 72-80-77 -229
T-49. Nicholas Paxos, 81-74-80 -235
INDIVIDUALS
T-23. Mitchell Moore, 75-75-79 -229
T-31. Keith Brooks, 83-70-77 -230
