Until this year. East Tennessee finally won at home, and wire-to-wire no less.
The Bucs began Sunday’s final round at Blakthorn Club at the Ridges with a two-shot lead on Kent State. East Tennessee turned that into a seven-shot lead early in the final round and held a five-shot lead after scores were reported through 12 holes.
The Bucs, who totaled the second-lowest team score in the 21-year history of the tournament, defeated Louisville by one stroke, Tennessee by three and Kent State by seven shots. ETSU has now won at least one tournament title in each of the last seven seasons, while this marked the 56th career win for head coach Fred Warren during his tenure with the Bucs.
“After 20 years of getting condolences, it’s nice to get congratulations,” said Warren, whose teams finished runner-up here in 2006, 2008 and 2014. “We made it harder than it should’ve been, but on the other hand, it’s tough to win these tournaments. This was a really good field we had here this weekend. Our guys did so many good things and we were able to overcome getting in our own way a little bit. To be honest, there’s a lot of joy and also a lot of relief. It was one of the most exciting tournaments I have ever been a part of. I am glad we came out on top and I am really proud of our guys.”
For his part, Go finished second individually with a 14-under 202 total. Louisville’s Simon Zach was first at 15 under. Zach’s final-round 66 helped him jump to the top of the leaderboard.
Information from ETSU Athletics used in this report