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Men’s golf finishes fourth at Mid-American

February 12, 2013
Kurtis Luedtke

Kurtis Luedtke

The Northern Illinois men’s golf team split its six games with Eastern Michigan on Tuesday, but the Eagles claimed third-place via tiebreaker in the Mid-American Match Play at Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club.

Senior Kurtis Luedtke (Aurora, Ill./West) was among the three winners for NIU against Eastern Michigan, Luedtke finished the Match Play with a perfect 3-0 individual record.

“Just like yesterday, most all of the matches today went down to the wire,” said NIU head coach Tom Porten.

“Kurtis (Luedtke) was just fantastic all week, he shot five-under today and beat a very good young player from Eastern Michigan and it was good to see Griffin (Bauman) and Nick (Schiavi) bounce back today from their losses yesterday. They both did a good job of wearing out their opponents.”

Luedtke won his match 3-and-2 over Stuart Grehan, also earning victories for the Huskies were redshirt senior Griffin Bauman (Crystal Lake, Ill./Central), 3-and-2 over Brian Churchill-Smith, and sophomore Nick Schiavi (Barrington, Ill./Barrington), 1-up over Spencer Slade.

Eastern Michigan claimed the tiebreaker over the Huskies as a result of having a larger margin of victory in its wins that NIU.

“We have to take away some positives,” Porten said. “We were the seventh seed going in and we come away with fourth place. Other than yesterday afternoon against Bowling Green, I thought that we played pretty good golf. “

Bowling Green defeated top-seeded Ball State, 3.5-2.5, to win the Mid-American Match Play.

Northern Illinois will resume its spring slate in a month when the Huskies travel to the Mission Inn Spring Spectacular in Howey in the Hills, Fla. The two-day event will begin Saturday, March 16.

For more information on NIU men’s golf and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.