Four Teams, Two Individuals Tapped for NCAA Regional Action
Complete release
INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has announced the field of 80 teams and 32 student-athletes competing as individuals that have been selected to participate in regional competition of the 2018 NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championships. Regional play will be conducted May 7-9.
The regional tournaments will be conducted at four sites with the West Region pairing up with the South Central Region as the 20 teams and eight individuals take to the course at Tascosa Golf Club in Amarillo, Texas.
The CCAA’s automatic bid into the regional field went to the Chico State, the top seed in the West. The Wildcats held off Cal State Monterey Bay in this week’s CCAA Championships medal/match play in a 3-2 battle, but the two will again share the course as the Otters earned the region’s No. 2 seed.
Chico State was one of two CCAA teams to participate in the West/South Central Region Preview in March, and the Wildcats took second in the 23-team field, carding a two-day tally of 297-278—575 (+7). Chico State was paced by a third-place individual finish for Serge Kiriluk. The junior from Sonora put together two under-par rounds, firing a 69 on the second day of the competition.
The Otters are led by 2018 CCAA individual medalist, Elis Svard. The sophomore from Sodertalje, Sweden is heading into the postseason hot, with four of his five rounds at Butte Creek Country Club coming in under par, including a 66 in the final round of stroke play to nab the four-shot victory over Chico State’s Kelley Sullivan, the 2017 CCAA individual champion.
Joining the fray in Amarillo is No. 4 seed Sonoma State, a CCAA medal/match play semifinalist. Grabbing the last spot in the regional field is Cal State San Marcos, making it to the regional stage in their first year of NCAA Division II postseason eligibility.
Along with four teams representing the conference, Stanislaus State senior Jeff Yamaguchi and Cal State San Bernardino junior Cody Hall will be in the hunt playing as individuals.
At a minimum, the top three teams and the top two student-athletes not with a team from each regional (regardless of region) will advance to the finals May 21-25, at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at the Shoals, Fighting Joe Course in Muscle Shoals, Ala. The remaining eight team berths will be allocated based on the regions represented in the prior year’s head-to-head medal play portion of the championships, with the maximum number of teams from a given region capped at seven.
SOUTH CENTRAL/WEST REGIONAL
Tascosa Golf Club, Amarillo, Texas; West Texas A&M University, host.
South Central Region:
1. Colorado-Colorado Springs
2. St. Mary’s (Texas)
3. Texas A&M Commerce
4. Arkansas-Fort Smith
5. Oklahoma Christian
6. Colorado School of Mines [Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference]
7. Colorado Christian
8. Colorado State-Pueblo
9. Midwestern State
10. Rogers State [Heartland Conference]
Individuals:
Grant Olinger, Colorado Mesa
Pedro De La Vega, Western New Mexico
Joaquin Arguelles, Dallas Baptist University
Nicholas Tenuta, Regis (Colorado)
West Region:
1. Chico State [California Collegiate Athletic Association]
2. Cal State Monterey Bay
3. Dixie State [Pacific West Conference]
4. Sonoma State
5. California Baptist
6. Simon Fraser
7. Dominican (California)
8. Western Washington
9. Holy Names
10. Cal State San Marcos
Individuals:
Jeffrey Yamaguchi, Stanislaus State
Nick Huff, Concordia Portland
Cody Hall, Cal State San Bernardino
Gabriel DeLeon Manotoc, Academy of Art