Bluffton won the Northwest Conference golf tournament in an 18-hole tournament played at Colonial Golf Club. The first-place tournament finish also clinched the overall 2014 conference golf championship for the Pirates.

The Pirates had a team total 356 to defeat tournament runner-up Allen East (362) by 6 strokes. Other tournament team totals were Lincolnview (363), Delphos Jefferson (374), Spencerville (378), Crestview (393), Columbus Grove (403), Paulding (432). Ada participated with 3 golfers and did not receive a team score.

Allen East junior, Kayne Richardson, was the tournament medalist for the second year in a row with a 79. Second place medalist honors went to sophomore Joshah Rager of Lincolnview (80). The third place medalist was Parker Frey of Allen East with an 81..

Following today’s play, the tournament finish for each school was combined with their regular season finish to determine the final golf standings for the NWC for 2014.   Bluffton won both the regular season and tournament, and took first place with a perfect 18 points. Allen East took second place in the conference with 16 points. Delphos Jefferson and Lincolnview tied for a third-place conference finish as each tallied 13 points. The other schools’ order of conference finish was Spencerville (9.5), Crestview (8.5), Paulding (5), Columbus Grove (5) and Ada (2).

Following today’s action, the NWC also presented its All-Conference Awards for 2014.

The coaches voted Brad Prater of Bluffton as Coach of the Year. Sophomore Joshah Rager of Lincolnview earned Player of the Year honors by virtue of points earned during each regular season match. Rager was joined on the NWC First Team by Kayne Richardson of Allen East, Parker Frey of Allen East, Chance Campbell of Spencerville, Mitchell Youngpeter of Spencerville and Rich Streicher of Bluffton.

NWC Boys Golf Tournament
1. Bluffton 356 (Aaron Belcher 85, Rich Streicher 88, James Harrod 88, Eli Runk 95)
2. Allen East 362 (Kayne Richardson 79, Parker Frey 81, Logan Ryan 100, Grant Whitley 102)
3. Lincolnview 363 (Joshah Rager 80, Derek Youtsey 83, Justis Dowdy 95, Braden Thatcher 105)
4. Delphos Jefferson 374 (Ryan Bullinger 92, Nick Fitch 92, Carter Mox 94, Aaron Foust 96)
5. Spencerville 378 (Mitchell Youngpeter 82, Chance Campbell 87, Brian Wood 102, Colin Davis 107)
6. Crestview 393 (Connor Lautzenheiser 95, Derek Biro 96, Caden Hurless 100, Mitchell Rickard 102)
7. Columbus Grove 403 (Braden Hoffman 98, Gage Gerdeman 100, Logan Hardeman 101, Kyle Welty 104)
8. Paulding 432 (Ben Heilshorn 92, Ethan Dominique 109, Corey Adkins 111, Cade McGarvey 120)
9. Ada – no team score (Brian Quillan 108, Zach Park 114, Chandler Hugart 127)

The annual Northwest Conference Golf Tournament will be held Thursday, September 18, 2014 at Colonial Golf Club located at 10985 Harding Highway, Harrod, OH.  All nine NWC teams will participate in the final league event of the 2014 season. A shotgun start is scheduled for 9 am.  Results from this conference tournament constitute fifty percent of the score used to tally the final order of finish in the conference. Regular season finish makes up the other fifty percent of this calculation.  Bluffton has won the regular season portion of the competition with a league record of 16-0 (overall 29-0).