BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Freshman Chad Golembeck, who was the medalist at the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin tournament, has been chosen "Most Valuable Player" for the 2001 version of the Illinois Wesleyan University men's golf team.

Golembeck (Petersburg, Porta HS), helped the Titans to their first league team title since 1977 and was the first IWU player to be CCIW medalist since Dan Stoerzbach, also in 1977. His 136 total was two strokes better than the previous CCIW tourney record shared by Lake Forest's Ty Porter (1962) and Augustana's Bill Lee (1964).

As a team, IWU fired a 1-over-par 289 on day two of the CCIW meet, a tourney single-day record, and the two-day 593 total tied the tourney mark of 593 set by Millikin in 1988. After finishing last by 30 strokes in the CCIW in 2000, IWU won the championship by 23 strokes over runner-up Augustana.

For the season, Golembeck averaged a team-low 76.7 strokes over 13 rounds.

Freshmen Bryan Noonan (Champaign, Centennial HS) and Billy Smith (Champaign, Central HS) also averaged fewer than 80 strokes per round, coming in at 77.6 and 78.2, respectively. Noonan was runner-up to Golembeck in the CCIW meet and was medalist at the Principia Invitational in April.

Head coach Jim Ott awarded letters to five players, all freshmen. They are, with hometowns and high schools:

FRESHMEN - Chad Golembeck, Petersburg (Porta HS); Matt Grandone, Urbana (HS).Bryan Noonan, Champaign (Centennial HS); Kevin Ollom, Ottawa (HS).Billy Smith, Champaign (Central HS).