Warriors, White Finish 11th at Nationals

Lubbock, TX -- Indian Hills' bid for a third straight national title came up short as the Warriors couldn't overcome a show start to the four-day NJCAA National Championship and finished in 11th place.

Indian Hills posted a team score of one over-par 289 in each of the last two rounds, but was done in by a 304 total in the opening round and a 296 the following day.  IHCC moved up the team leaderboard after finding themselves in 17th place midway through the tourney.

IHCC sophomore William White shot a two-under par 286 for the 72-hole event and wound up in a tie for 11th place,  mirroring his team's finish.  White's only round above par was the first one when he opened with a 74.  He followed with a 70 the next day and ended with back-to-back 71s, giving him three straight sub-par rounds to close out his two-year career.

Freshman Connor Peck was next for Indian Hills in a tie for 48th place with a  297 total.  After Peck came Ben Ludlam and Mitch Tucker, who, like White, were a part of the 2012 Indian Hills title team.  Ludlam fought back from a first-round 80 to tie for 54th place.  He got steadily better as the tourney went on, shooting 75, 73 and 70 over the final three days.

Tucker tied for 77th place; his best round of the event was an even-par 72 in the third round.

Rounding out the IHCC scoring was Kevin Workman, who also overcame a bad round -- a second round 86 -- to post rounds of 73 and 75 the last two days.

Central Alabama won the team title by one stroke over runnerup Odessa (TX).

The Warriors will lose all five of the golfers that coach Mike Hagen took to the national tourney.  The lone freshman in the group, Peck, has signed a letter-of-intent to attend Kansas University in the fall.  Tucker is headed to University of Missouri-Kansas City, White to Northern Illinois and Ludlam will go to St. John's in New York.

NJCAA Division I National Championship

Team Scores (top 11)

1. Central Alabama  299-296-272-283=1150; 2. Odessa  291-297-278-285=1151; 3. Scottsdale  295-298-276-286=1155; 4. Johnson County  296-289-287-285=1157; 5. Brevard  299-297-276-287=1159; 6. Iowa Western  295-289-291-288=1163; 7. Wallace State  298-286-290-290=1164; 8. New Mexico JC  303-296-279-297=1165; 9. Midland  291-284-301-291=1167; 10. McLennan  294-284-292-299=1169; 11. Indian Hills  304-296-289-289=1178

Indian Hills Scores

T11. William White  74-70-71-71=286; T48. Connor Peck  75-75-74-73=297; T54. Ben Ludlam  80-75-73-70=298; T77. Mitch Tucker  79-76-72-75=302; T107. Kevin Workman  76-86-73-75=310