Canadian James Lepp Wins NCAA Northern Intercollegiate Title

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:45:06

"Bloomington, Indiana -- British Columbia native James Lepp earned medallist honours with an 11-under 202 at the Northern Intercollegiate Championship played at the Indiana University GC in Bloomington, Indiana. James is the two-time Canadian Junior National Champion and was named an honorable mention All-American and unanimous Big Ten Freshman of the Year after a stellar freshman year with the Illinois golf team last season.

Illinois won the team title with a one-shot victory over the defending NCAA champion Minnesota. Illinois finished with three consecutive sub-par rounds at 9-under 843, while Minnesota finished at 844.

James Lepp finished three shots ahead of Penn State's Jim Fuller for the individual title. Lepp's 54-hole total of 202 sets a new Illinois scoring record, breaking the previous record of 205, set twice by current PGA Tour member Steve Stricker.

"The Northern Intercollegiate is one of the biggest tournaments in the Midwest during the fall season, so this is obviously a big win for our program," said Illinois coach Mike Small. "We were able to beat a Minnesota team that won the NCAA title last year, and we received key contributions from all of our players throughout the weekend."

James wrote in to MikeWeir.com to share with us his experience:

Well, in all it was a great week for my team and myself.

I have been happy with my year so far, building on my good play this summer. I was anxious to get back to school and start playing again, to test my improvement of my game in competition. A couple of weeks ago I finished 3rd at the Inverness Intercollegiate. This was a big finish for me as a lot of really strong teams ended up competing.

The Northern Intercollegiate Championship was played this past weekend at the Indiana University Golf Course in Bloomington, IN. The course conditions were not excellent, which seems to be typical of university campus courses. The layout of the course itself was decent, however there where some holes where the grass was nonexistent.

I didn't miss many shots last week. My longest par putt through the first two rounds was from 3 feet which is one that I did miss.

It didn't really feel like a tournament though, more of a marathon. There was a fog delay on the first day so we ended up teeing off late to a shotgun start. We didn't finish the first 2 rounds, so we were back at it again bright and early Saturday morning. Instead of regrouping after finishing the second round, we ended up playing right into the third round with the same pins and playing partners. I was playing pretty solid hitting 16 of 18 greens in regulation but 33 putts are too many. But I guess it ended up being good enough!

My group was the best one out there - we finished 20-under as a group for three days. Going into the tournament I expected our team would win. Patrik Nagle, a freshman on our team is really good - he shot a 66 in the last round. The team looks great for the rest of the year. In the spring we are expecting to be even better because a fellow that transferred here will become eligible. Next week we play in St. Charles Missouri in the Purina Classic. Hopefully I can build on this and have a strong fall finish.

TEAM SCORES
1. Illinois 280-283-280--843 -9
2. Minnesota 281-283-280--844 -8
3. Michigan State 294-281-273--848 -4
4. Xavier 282-287-280--849 -3
5. Indiana 295-282-283--860 +8
5. Ohio State 294-283-283--860 +8
7. Iowa 285-285-291--861 +9
8. Penn State 287-291-285--863 +11
9. Miami U. (Ohio) 293-282-293--868 +16
10. Eastern Michigan 298-281-291--870 +18
11. Wisconsin 292-290-292--874 +22
12. Ball State 296-289-295--880 +28
13. Michigan 291-292-298--881 +29
14. Marshall 299-289-295--883 +31
15. Ohio 291-295-300--886 +34
16. Western Kentucky 293-294-305--892 +40

INDIVIDUAL SCORES
1. James Lepp, Illinois 65-67-70--202 -11
2. Jim Fuller, Penn State 66-70-69--205 -8
3. Mike Tapper, Iowa 66-69-71--206 -7
4. Jeff Overton, Indiana 69-67-71--207 -6
5. Brandon Boomsma, Ball State 70-68-70--208 -5
5. Casey Lubahn, Mich. St. 70-70-68--208 -5
5. Matt Makinson, Xavier 70-70-68--208 -5
8. Patrick Nagle, Illinois 71-72-66--209 -4
9. Michael Baldwin, Wisconsin 71-71-68--210 -3
9. Simon Nash, Minn. 69-70-71--210 -3
9. Wilhelm Schauman, Minn. 70-68-72--210 -3
12. Korey Mahoney, E Michigan 73-66-72--211 -2
12. Tim Smith, Xavier 68-72-71--211 -2
14. Andrew Ruthkoski, Mich. St. 74-72-67--213 E
14. Miles Maillet, Xavier 72-72-69--213 E
16. David Morgan, Minn. 71-73-70--214 +1
16. Geoff Lound, Illinois 74-71-69--214 +1
16. John Koskinen, Mich. St. 75-71-68--214 +1
16. Kevin Hall, Ohio State 75-71-68--214 +1
20. Aaron Krueger, Iowa 74-67-74--215 +2
20. Eric Jorgensen, Mich. St. 75-68-72--215 +2
20. Heath Peters, Indiana 74-73-68--215 +2
20. Justin Kruse, Miami (OH) 73-69-73--215 +2
20. Justin Smith, Minn. 71-73-71--215 +2
25. Eric Phipps, Miami (OH) 73-70-73--216 +3
25. Ryan Moore, Illinois 74-71-71--216 +3
25. Zack Randol, Ohio State 75-71-70--216 +3
28. Ben Davidson, Indiana 77-70-70--217 +4
28. Brad Marek, Indiana 74-71-72--217 +4
28. Brian Brodell, Wisconsin 72-70-75--217 +4
28. David Bieterman, Ohio State 74-68-75--217 +4
28. Derek Hurwitch, Marshall 73-71-73--217 +4
33. Jared Topmiller, W Kentucky 70-72-76--218 +5
33. Tyler McDannold, E Michigan 73-71-74--218 +5
33. Zach Doran, Ohio State 74-74-70--218 +5
36. Andrew Price, Penn State 77-70-72--219 +6
36. Justin Cross, Ball State 77-70-72--219 +6
36. Luke Miller, Iowa 72-74-73--219 +6
36. Matt Anderson, Minn. 79-72-68--219 +6
36. Mike Calkin, Miami (OH) 73-73-73--219 +6
36. Neal Grusczynski, Xavier 72-73-74--219 +6
36. Ryan Paulson, Minn. 77-73-69--219 +6
43. Aaron Bickle, Ohio 74-72-74--220 +7
43. Ben Fox, Mich. St. 77-73-70--220 +7
43. Mark McIntosh, Michigan 74-76-70--220 +7
43. Ryan Swelin, Miami (OH) 76-70-74--220 +7
47. Brad Pemberton, E Michigan 73-74-74--221 +8
47. Brad Tweel, Marshall 73-74-74--221 +8
47. Christian Vozza, Michigan 72-73-76--221 +8
47. Darren Lundgren, Ohio State 71-73-77--221 +8
47. Kenton Hobbs, Xavier 75-74-72--221 +8
47. Mark Weghorst, Miami (OH) 74-73-74--221 +8
47. Peter Riddell, Ohio State 74-75-72--221 +8
47. Robert Tighe, Michigan 75-74-72--221 +8
47. Ted Neville, Penn State 73-76-72--221 +8
56. Dylan Esterling, Wisconsin 75-75-72--222 +9
56. Mark Leon, Penn State 74-76-72--222 +9
56. Scott Seibert, Indiana 76-72-74--222 +9
56. Wes Hansen, Wisconsin 75-71-76--222 +9
60. Bo Anderson, Iowa 74-75-74--223 +10
60. David Nichols, Michigan 70-73-80--223 +10
60. Greg Pieczynski, Penn State 74-75-74--223 +10
60. John Mullendore, W Kentucky 75-73-75--223 +10
60. Kyle Thomas, Ohio 71-77-75--223 +10
60. Mike O'Neal, Illinois 72-73-78--223 +10
60. Nic Watson, E Michigan 79-73-71--223 +10
67. Ben Minyard, Marshall 79-71-74--224 +11
67. Brian Bickle, Ohio 75-71-78--224 +11
67. Garrett Chaussard, Illinois 72-77-75--224 +11
67. Jeff Chadwell, Ohio 73-75-76--224 +11
67. Robby Shaw, W Kentucky 72-75-77--224 +11
72. Brian Elsea, Ohio 73-77-75--225 +12
72. Kirk Wood, Indiana 76-73-76--225 +12
74. Erik Feldick, Iowa 73-80-73--226 +13
74. Geoff Harriman, Ball State 72-75-79--226 +13
74. Rob Ockenfuss, Indiana 77-75-74--226 +13
77. Adam Cox, W Kentucky 76-74-77--227 +14
77. Clay Poff, E Michigan 82-71-74--227 +14
77. J.J. Beckstrom, Mich. St. 82-65-80--227 +14
77. Joel Rechlicz, Wisconsin 76-74-77--227 +14
77. Lance Scholl, Ball State 77-76-74--227 +14
77. Mike Miller, Indiana 76-76-75--227 +14
83. Scott Carlton, Michigan 75-72-81--228 +15
84. Aldo Jordan, Indiana 77-73-79--229 +16
84. Ryan Cassidy, Indiana 77-76-76--229 +16
84. Ryan Stewart, Marshall 78-73-78--229 +16
87. Kevin Tassistro, Wisconsin 74-78-78--230 +17
88. Drew Whitten, Marshall 75-82-74--231 +18
89. Peyton Cook, W Kentucky 79-77-77--233 +20
"