Merkow and 3 others earn Big Ten honors
In deference to its domination of the conference championship over the weekend, the Big Ten bestowed a plethora of honors upon the Northwestern men’s golf team Tuesday.
Junior David Merkow picked up the highest award, as he was named the Big Ten Player of the Year.
Merkow finished the regular season as the highest-ranked Big Ten player in the Golfweek/Sagarin index, and he joins former NU golfers Scott Rowe and Luke Donald as the only other winners of the award in school history.
Merkow led the Wildcats with a 72.97 stroke average and six top-20 finishes this year, which included a first-place effort at the 2005 Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge in October.
Along with junior Chris Wilson, Merkow also was named to the First-Team All-Big Ten. Senior Dillon Dougherty was tabbed for the second team.
Sophomore Kyle Moore, who won the Kepler Intercollegiate for his first college win last month, was named NU’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient.
Wilson is coming off the top two performances of his collegiate career, placing second at the Fossum/Spartan Invitational on April 23 and then winning the Big Ten Championship on Sunday. Wilson birdied three of his final four holes to overtake Michigan State’s Ryan Brehm for the conference individual title.
Wilson owns a 73.06 stroke average and has five top-20 finishes this year.
Dougherty, a 2006 Ben Hogan Award candidate, is third on the team’s stroke average list with a 74.00 mark. He placed fourth in a pair of events – the William Tucker Invitational and the CordeValle Collegiate.
Dougherty’s season highlight, however, came in April when he was one of five amateurs to play in the Masters Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. Dougherty earned his Masters’ invitation by finishing second at the U.S. Amateur last August.
The Cats return to action May 18 in the NCAA Regional Championships, but they will get idea of their postseason future Monday when they will learn their regional assignment.
NU to meet ‘The U’ in ACC/Big Ten Challenge
For the first time in school history, the NU men’s basketball team will meet head-to-head with Miami in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 28.
The Cats also will be the host in the Challenge for the first time in two years. The game is set to be televised live on ESPN2.
“We look forward to the Challenge every year,” NU coach Bill Carmody said in a press release. “We have always felt the Challenge is a great opportunity to prove yourself against a quality opponent early in the season and see where your team stands. This year’s game will be another good test for us.”
Since 2000, the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten have combined to make 13 Final Four appearances and captured four of the last seven NCAA titles. In addition, the ACC and Big Ten rank either first or second in all-time NCAA tournament bids, victories and Final Four appearances.
Miami was 18-16 overall last season and finished in a three-way tie for seventh in the ACC with a 7-9 league mark. The Hurricanes advanced to the postseason NIT, winning their first and second round games before losing to Michigan in the quarterfinals.
The Cats narrowly missed the postseason for the third-straight year last season. NU finished 14-15 and tied for eighth in the Big Ten with a 6-10 conference mark.
Wildcats back on top of women’s lacrosse world
The NU women’s lacrosse team has reclaimed the No. 1 spot in this week’s IWLCA poll after winning its last five games and clinching its third-straight conference title and a trip to the NCAA tournament on Sunday.
The Cats, ranked No. 1 at the start of the season, dropped from the top spot April 7 when they had their 31-game win streak snapped at Duke.
With a 49-2 record in its last 51 regular-season games, NU hosts Vanderbilt at 4 p.m. Friday before commencing their NCAA title defense the following weekend.
– Staff Reports
