MACON, Ga --- The 24th-ranked Chattanooga Mocs men's golf team made a valiant final round charge before finishing second at the AutoTrader.com Collegiate Classic at Berkeley Hills Country Club. Steven Fox (Hendersonville, Tenn.) led it with a five-under par 67 as the team tied its season-best round at nine-under par 279.

All four counting scores were under par as UTC finished second to No. 10 North Florida. The Ospreys had a three-shot lead on the Mocs entering the final round and had to post an eight-under 280 to hold on for the title.

"I could not be more pleased with how we played today," said head coach Mark Guhne. "We played well enough to win this tournament; North Florida was just a little better. This is a great way to end the fall."

UNF matched the Mocs shot-for-shot throughout the round. UTC cut the lead to one at the turn and after all five Mocs birdied the par five 10th, the teams were knotted at seven under.

The Ospreys answered with four birdies over the next four holes to go up four shots heading into the par five 15th. The Mocs rallied with three birdies there to close within two, but that's as close as it would get. UNF won with a nine-under par 855, while UTC was second at seven under, 857.

Fox was outstanding in his final round. A tap-in birdie on one - after knocking it to just a foot - was the first of seven on the day tying his career high. He ended up second at seven-under 209, one shot off the pace set by East Carolina's Harold Varner at minus 10.

Stephan Jaeger's (Munich, Germany) 70 gave him a 54-hole mark of six-under 210. He tied for fourth, his fourth top 10 in five fall events, and third top five.

Benni Weilguni (Langelois, Austria) and Davis Bunn (Knoxville, Tenn.) rounded out the counting scores with 71s (-1). It is the first time this season that the Mocs counted four sub-par cards. Liam Johnston (Dumfries, Scotland) had the drop score with a 79.

Weilguni ended up tied for 13th at 220 (+4) giving him three top 15s in the fall. Johnston tied for 38th (226), while Bunn tied for 53rd (229).

Two other Mocs competed as Chris Robb (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) and Alex Ratliff (Kingsport, Tenn.) finishing tied for 21st (222) and 44th (228), respectively. Robb fired a three-under par 69 to join in the Chattanooga scoring frenzy.

While UNF and UTC duked it out atop the leaderboard, Varner led ECU to a third-place finish at 870. Southern Conference rivals Georgia Southern (tie 5th), UNCG (8th), Furman (9th) and Wofford (10th) were in the field. The foursome finished 27-40 strokes behind Chattanooga.

This ends the fall portion of the Mocs schedule. They return to action February 26-27 for the Seahawk Intercollegiate in Wilmington, N.C.

AutoTrader.com Collegiate Championship
Oct. 17-18, 2011 • Berkeley Hills C.C. • Duluth, Ga.

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