BEND, Ore.  Whitman men's golf on Sunday finished its last tune-up before the conference championship with a sixth-place finish at the two-day Willamette (Univ.) Spring Thaw. Jimmy Jacobson and Mario Santos-Davidson posted top-10 finishes on the individual leaderboard to pace the Blues at the par-72, 6,751-yard course at the Pronghorn Golf Resort.

Whitman (319-320—639) finished just five strokes back from George Fox University (309-325—634) and Willamette (315-319—634), which finished in a fourth-place tie. Linfield College (318-302—620) captured the team title with a second-day round that lifted the Wildcats from fourth place at the start of the day to the top of the leaderboard at days end.

Jacobson (78-76—154) used a 10-over par total to finish in a tie for eighth place, one stroke ahead of Santos-Davidson (81-74—155) who ended the weekend tied for 10th place.

Combining with Jacobson and Santos-Davidson on Whitman's team scorecard were Eric Wasserman (T-20th, 73-85—162) and Charlie Schneider (T-31st, 83-85—168).

Luc Birchfield (90-86—176) and Matthew Bowman (100-92—192) posted individual-scoring rounds for the Blues.

Atop the individual leaderboard at the end of 36 holes were four golfers who headed back out onto the course for playoff to determine individual medalist honors. Willamette's Benjamin Graham (73-76—149, plus-5) won the title on the second playoff hole to best Lucas Balala (78-71—149) of Linfield, Mason Koch (72-77—149) of George Fox, and first-round leader Kenneth Sheldon (70-79—149) of Willamette.

Whitman heads to Lakewood, Washington, next for the Northwest Conference Men's Championship tournament, hosted by University of Puget Sound at the Oakbrook Golf Club on Saturday and Sunday, April 21-22. The Championship is the third of the league's three majors -- including the Fall Classic and Spring Classic -- that combine to determine the conference champion and automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship.