Thursday, March 08, 2001

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- Coming off of the heels of their championship in the Birkdale Collegiate Classic, ETSU was ranked 20th in the nation in the latest edition of the MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings (published 3/7/01) while senior All-American Chris Wisler was ranked sixth individually.

The Buccaneers won the Birkdale Classic by five strokes over 25th ranked-Wake Forest after shooting a two round total of 573 (290-283). Senior Pat Beste earned individual medalist honors by firing a 3-under par 141 (73-68) in his two rounds of play. Each of the Buccaneer golfers finished in the top-14 in the 15 team event. Wisler finished in a tie for 10th after shooting a 3-over par 147 (71-76).

Wisler leads the Buccaneers with a 71.8 stroke average. He has finished in the top-10 in four tournaments this year and in two of his last three. Wisler is the defending Southern Conference Player-of-the-Year and is a two-time NCAA All-American, and preseason first-team All-American in 2000-2001.

The MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings, the official rankings of the Rolex Collegiate Tour, will be released a total of 18 times throughout the 2000-01 college golf season. These rankings are the only published rankings to use complete and official NCAA results.

The Buccaneers return to action on March 24-25 from the Schenkel E-Z Go Invitational from Statesboro, Ga.