LAKEWOOD, Wash.  Whitman closed out its 2017-18 campaign by carding an overall score of 623 (311-312), good for a sixth-place finish at the two-day Northwest Conference Men's Golf Championship Tournament.  

The Blues, whose sixth-place finish exceeded the eighth-place expectations laid out in the NWC preseason coaches' poll, were paced by Eric Wasserman, who carded a 4-over 75 en route to finishing tied for 16th in the tournament.

Wasserman, a first-year, improved his round from Saturday by one shot Sunday and finished with a final two-day total of 151 (76-75).

Whitman had a total of three golfers crack the top 30. In addition to Wasserman, sophomore Jimmy Jacobson shaved a stroke off his first round score to finish 23rd with a 155 (78-77), while Mario Santos-Davidson finished tied for 24th on the day, finishing plus-14 for the tournament (76-80—156).

Luc Birchfield (81-80—161, +19) improved by a shot on day two and finished 33rd, while Will Selman finished in 39th (82-88—170, +28) in, like with Santos-Davidson, his final collegiate tournament.

The team title at the tournament went to Pacific Lutheran University, which carded +13 overall for the tournament (287-294—581) to secure the victory over last year's champion Whitworth, which finished the day nine shots better than a day before, but finished a runner-up 14 strokes off the pace (302-293—595,+27). Willamette came in third, finishing one shot behind Whitworth ( 293-303—506,+28).

Individually, Sam Hinton (69-74—143) from Willamette and Alex Plusquellec (72-71—143) finished tied for first and were both +1 overall after 36 holes.

Eventually, Hinton would beat Plusquellec in a playoff to take medalist honors. Both men narrowly prevented a four-man playoff as two members of Pacific Lutheran, Austin Darnell and Luke Hall, finished with a 144, just a shot off the lead.

The NWC crown is determined by a combination of the league's three 'majors' -- the Fall Classic, Spring Classic, and Championship. Points are awarded for team placements at each tournament, doubled for the Championship results, then combined for a season total.

Entering the weekend PLU had the lead for the crown and its win at the Championship added 16 points for a season-long total of 30 points -- and the NWC crown and automatic berth into the NCAA D-III men's championship.

In the final standings Whitworth was second with 26 points and Willamette was third with 24 points.

Whitman entered the weekend with two points and in eighth place, but netted six points with its sixth-place Championship finish to accumulate eight points for the season and a final seventh-place finish in the league standings.