Men's Golf Releases (2005-06) - Nebraska Wesleyan Fall Preview Round 1 - Guilford College

 

      LINCOLN, NE (9/19/05) -- Nebraska Wesleyan's Aaron Stockton started the fall season even better than he finished his sophomore year last spring.  Stockton, who tied for 12th at the 2005 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships back in May and earned PING All-America Second Team honors, leads an impressive field of golfers after shooting a 68 in Mondayšs opening round of the Nebraska Wesleyan Fall Preview played at Wilderness Ridge.

      "I made a few putts and got up and down on the greens I missed," Stockton said.  "It's definitely the best round Išve ever played (at Wilderness Ridge)."

      Stockton sits three strokes ahead of Guilford College's Colin Clark, who won the individual national crown in 2005.

      "It will be difficult to play bogey-free two days in a row, but I want to duplicate what I did today and help my team as much as possible," Stockton said.

      The Nebraska Wesleyan men, ranked No. 2 in Golfweekšs preseason rankings for NCAA Div. III, also lead the team standings by four strokes over Emory University and six strokes over defending national champion Guilford College.

      "We played a lot better as a team on the back nine," NWU Head Men's Golf Coach Brett Balak said. "We have a long way to go this year and right now, wešre just excited to have such a great field in town to play this tournament."

      National title winners from five of the last six years, including Guilford (2002 and 2005), Gustavus Adolphus College (2004), Greensboro College (2000) and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (2001) are competing in this tourney, which concludes Tuesday at Firethorn Golf Club. Nebraska Wesleyan and Firethorn will host the NCAA Div. III Championships in 2006.

 

-Story courtesy of Nebraska Wesleyan Sports Information