The Fighting Illini posted a final-round score of 309 moving them into fifth place at the 2006 Big Ten Men’s Golf Championships, hosted by Northwestern at the par 71, 7,168-yard Conway Farms Golf Club. Illinois shot a 72-hole total of 1,177 strokes to take fifth, marking Illinois’ fourth Top-5 finish of the season.

The Northwestern Wildcats won the Big Ten Championships with a score of 1,160. Minnesota took second, finishing nine shots behind Northwestern. They were followed by Purdue, Michigan State and Illinois.

Illinois was able to pass up Indiana on the final day despite strong winds and heavy rain. Leading the charge for Illinois was senior Blair Harkins, who shot the second best score of the final round posting a 73.

Harkins, along with sophomore Mark Ogren, took home top-10 finishes for the tournament. Ogren had the best finish of any Illini player and also the best finish of his career as he shot a 291 and took sixth in tournament. Ogren missed qualifying for the All Big Ten team by just one spot. Harkins’ 293 earned him a tie for eighth place; it was Harkins best finish of his career and his second top 10 this season.

“Mark and Blair went out there, played well and finished well,” said coach Mike Small. “With two guys in the top eight, that shows we are a good team, however, we are out there to win.”

Junior Kyle Hosick (299), sophomore Danny Zimmerman (302), and sophomore Frank Alafoginis (309) also contributed to Illinois fifth-place finish.

Northwestern’s Chris Wilson won medalist honors at -4, defeating Michigan State’s Ryan Brehm by one stroke.

Illinois was once again without one of their best players, junior Patrick Nagle, who continues to be sidelined with a hand injury.

“He tried to play,” Small said. “Obviously he couldn’t get it done though; we’re taking it day by day.”

Despite being without Nagle, Illinois proved to be up to the challenge. Time and time again this season the younger golfers have stepped up when they were needed for coach Small. This weekend was no exception.

Illinois will now wait to see if they played well enough to qualify for regionals. Small said their ranking should be high enough to qualify, but with only a certain number of schools selected from each conference, Illinois will have to wait for the final decision to be made sometime in the next week.

Even if this happens to be the last tournament of the year, Illinois will be bringing back a majority of their team when school resumes next fall.

“We have a lot of talent (returning) and we’re young on paper, if we work hard and want it bad enough we’ll have a really good team,” Small said.