Hegge Tops Leaderboard at NWC Fall Classic

PORTLAND, Ore. - Dustin Hegge continued his hot play with a four-under-par 68 to take Saturday's first day lead at the Northwest Conference Fall Classic being held at Heron Lakes Golf Club.

Hegge, a sophomore from Auburn, carded his 68 on the part 72, 6,491-yard Great Blue Course at Heron Lakes. He has a one-stroke lead over Puget Sound's Matt Kitto with 18 poles to play. Two other players shot sub-par rounds - Linfield's Alex Fitch and Puget Sound's Nick Kelley both carded one-under-par 71.

With Kitto and Kelley leading the way, Puget Sound shot an even-par 288 as a team and holds a 10-stroke lead over second place Linfield. Pacific Lutheran had a 306 and is in third, followed by Whitworth 312, Whitman 315, Pacific 317, George Fox 322, Willamette 327, and Lewis & Clark incomplete.

Rounding out the PLU tournament scores were Daron Casey and Tim Livermore, both with 79, Auston Hilkin 80, and Alex Liljestrom 85.

Hegge came into the tournament off of medalist honors at the Whitworth Invitational held Oct. 2-3 in Spokane. He shot rounds of 68 and 74 there to win that tournament by two strokes. Now he is in position to win the NWC Fall Classic, one of three "major" tournaments used by the conference to determine the overall winner. The NWC Fall Classic medalist also automatically earns first team all-conference recognition.

The NWC Fall Classic concludes with another 18 holes on Sunday.

- PLU -