Pepperdine (Hitchner) & New Mexico (Herron) Qualify for NCAA Championships; Warian Misses by 3

College

Playing in the Men's NCAA Division I Championships has become a kind of annual rite of passage for the Pepperdine golf team. The Waves, who won the NCAA team title two years ago, will be playing for it again this year, May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., but to get into the NCAAs, a team has to finish in the top five -- no ties -- at one of the six regionals, and although they did manage to do that this week at the Morgan Hill (Calif.) Regional, it was close. Having been ranked in the top 10 out of the more than 250 DI golf teams in the country from the beginning of the 2022-23 season, they were seeded No. 1 in their regional. But on Wednesday, it was all they could do to claim the fifth -- and last available -- spot available at Morgan Hill for this year's national college championships.

Derek Hitchner, the former Minnesota state high school champion from Blake -- and former State Amateur champion -- did his part. Rebounding from a second-round 77 on Tuesday, the fifth-year senior (grad student) made two birdies and two bogeys in a round of even-par 72 at The Institute Golf Club. That gave him a 54-hole total of 221 (5 over) and a tie for 24th in a field of 75.  Each of the other four Pepperdine players was over par Wednesday. Their team score was 293, and their overall team total was 875, three strokes better than the 878 for sixth-place Cal.

Mississippi State won the regional team title with an 863 aggregate. Brigham Young was second at 868, Florida State third at 871 and Baylor fourth at 873.

Florida State's Luke Clanton, a freshman from Hialeah, Fla., was the most consistent player in the field, shooting three connsecutive 2-under 70s, and the resulting three-day total of 210 was good enough to claim  medalist honors. Riley Lewis of Loyola Marymount and Maximillian Steinlechner of North Carolina State tied for second place, two behind at 212. Both were playing with teams that were not amojng the five that advanced. So there was a playoff for the only spot in the NCAA available to an individual, and Lewis won it with a birdie on the third extra hole.

Last year, Hitchner was 10th in the regional and 25th in the 72-hole stroke-play portion of the NCAA tournament, and he received All-American honorable mention status. Pepperdine made it to the semifinals in match play at the NCAAs before losing to Arizona State, which then lost to Texas in the final. 

One other Minnesotan will be in Scottsdale at the end of the month. Carson Herron made it with the New Mexico team, which finished fourth in the Salem (N.C.) Regional. Herron, whose father, Tim, a former PGA Tour winner (four times) who also played his college golf for New Mexico, was busy playing in a qualifier himself on Wednesday. The 53-year-old former State Amateur champ (Tim and his grandfather Carson Lee Herron are two of only five players who finished in the top three in three consecutive State Ams during the last 95 years)  shot a 66 at Troy Burne and got the only spot available there for this year's U.S Senior Open. 

As for Carson, he opened with a 6-under 66 at The Cliffs and Keowee Falls, followed it with a 73 on Tuesday and shot 71 on Wednesday. His 210 total was good for a tie for 23rd. 

Georgia Tech came from seven strokes behind with a 21-under 267 in the final round and overtook Arkansas to win the team title by eight over Arkansas, 811 to 819. North Carolina was third at 821, and New Mexico ended up one behind the Tar Heels at 822. The Lobos had a cushion of 13 between themselves and the two teams that tied for fifth -- Texas A&M and Clemson. That tie necessitated a playoff for fifth, which Texas A&M won.

Three other Minnesotans -- the Gophers' Ben Warian, Notre Dame's Nate Stevens and Valparaiso's Caleb VanArragon -- were playing as individuals only in the Bath (Mich.) Regional, which meant that they were really bucking the odds in their attempt to get into the NCAA Championships field. Twenty-five players qualify from each region with their teams, but only one individual moves on. That individual has to beat all of the other players in the regional who are competing as individiuals only (10 in the case of Bath), but he also has to beat all 40 of the players whose teams don't advance.

You can finish second in the region and not make it as an individual, as happened to North Carolina State's Steinlechner on Wednesday in the Morgan Hill Regional. Steinlechner was the guy who tied Riley Lewis for second, but lost to Lewis in a playoff. 

Warian came the closest to beating the odds in Bath. He zipped around Eagle Eye Golf Club in 66 strokes (5 under) on Monday in the first round and added a 70 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he birdied the 351-yard, par-4 third hole, but then made a double bogey two holes later, at the 189-yard, par-3 fifth. The junior from Stillwater got back to even par with a birdie at the sixth (364 yards, par 4), but he bogeyed the eighth (403, par 4). He also bogeyed the 13th, a 487-yard par 4, and that virtually killed his chances of advancing.

He had eagled the 18th hole at Eagle Eye on Tuesday, but even that wouldn't have done the trick on Wednesday. Warian wound up shooting 72 and finishing 54 holes at 209 (minus 4). That was good enough to tie for 11th place, and he beat all of the indivdiual onlys except for one. Mikkel Mathiesen of Wright State closed with a 69, which put him two ahead of Warian, at 207 -- but Mathiesen won't be teeing it up at Grayhawk, either. That's because Luke O'Neill shot 69 and concluded the week at 206 -- and his team, Kansas State, came up just short of finishing in the top five. The Jayhawks finished sixth at 845, three behind the defending NCAA champs from Texas.  

Georgia dominated the Bath Regional. The Bulldogs' Ben Van Wyk, a junior from South Africa who was probably one of the smallest players in the field, at 5 feet, 6 inches tall and 150 pounds, went wire to wire and won by three with a 203 (65-68-70). His teammate Caleb Manuel tied for second at 206, having closed with a 72 -- he tied Kansas State's O'Neill --  and the other three players for Geogia all finished in the top 20. The Bulldogs' winning total was 823, 29 under par.  Illinois, the perennial Big Ten champ, finished second at 831, and Oregon was third, another seven back at 838. Fllorida was fourth at 840, two ahead of Texas.

Stevens, the 2022 Minnesota Mr. Golf from Northfield, is a freshman at Notre Dame, and he shot 74 on Wednesday. That put him into a tie for 29th at 214. VanArragon, a former Minnesota Boys Junior champion from Blaine and the 2022 MGA Player of the Year, shot 71 on Wednesday, which gave the Valpo senior a 221 total for the week, and 59th place. 



NCAA Regionals

May 15-17

Bath Regional

At Eagle Eye Golf Club 

Par 71, 7,090 yards

Bath, Mich. 

Final results (the top five teams advance to the NCAA Championships, May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.) 

1. Georgia                 266-274-283--823 (-29)

2. Illinois                    272-278-281--831

3. Oregon                  279-274-285--838

4. Florida                   280-284-276--840

5. Texas                    275-281-286--842

Did not advance

6. Kansas State          281-283-281--845

7. Michigan State       272-285-294--851

8. Liberty                    283-290-282--855

9. Little Rock              279-290-295--864

T10. San Diego         286-288-295--869

T11. Illinois State       288-296-285--869

12. Wisconsin            284-291-298--873

13. Purdue Ft. Wayne 296-306-298--900

Individuals (the highest-finishing individual not on an advancing team qualifies for the NCAA Championships) 

1. Ben Van Wyk, Georgia              65-68-70--203

T2. A.D. de Chassart, Illinois        67-71--68--206

T2. Luke O'Neill, Kansas State     68--69-69--206 (qualifies as an individual for the NCAAs)

T2. Caleb Manuel, Georgia           66-68-72--206

T5. Owen Avrit, Oregon                66-68-73--207

T5. Connor Polender, Liberty        68-70-69--207

T5. Mikkel Mathiesen, Wright St.  67-71-69--207*

T8. Matthis Besard, Illinois            67-69--72--208

T8. Tommy Morrison, Texas          68-70-70--208

T8. Tommy Kuhl, Illinois                68-69-71--208

T11. Ben Warian, Minnesota      67-70-72--209*

T11. Maxwell Ford, Georgia         71-65-73--209

T11. Fred Biondi, Florida              69-68-72--209

T11. Ricky Castillo, Florida           69-71-69--209

T11. Yuxin Lin, Florida                  72-71-66--209

T11. Gregory Solhaug, Oregon    70-68-71--209

T29. Nate Stevens, Notre Dame 69-71-74--214*

59. Caleb VanArragon, Valpo.    73-77-71--221*

*--indicates player competing as an individual only


Salem Rdgional 

At The Cliffs at Keowee Falls

Par 72, 7,126 yards

Salem, N.C. 

Final results 

1. Geogia Tech                      278-266-267--811 (-53)

2. Arkansas                           266-271-282--819

3. North Carolina                   273-278-270--821

4. New Mexico                      272-279-271--822

5. Texas A&M                        281-283-271--835 (won playoff over Clemson to claim the final team spot at the NCAA Championships)

Did not advance

6. Clemson                           282-278-275--835

T7. Georgia Southern           279-279-278--836 

T7. San Diego State             284-280-272--836

9. Northern Illinois                 275-278-288--841

10. Furman                           283-288-281--852

11. Middle Tenn. State          283-291-282--856

12. Purdue                            283-296-283--862

13. Longwood                       284-302-288--874

!4. Long Island                      308-292-276--876

Individuals

1. Ryan Burnett, No. Carolina          63-68-68--199

2. Sam Lape, Furman                      65-72-64--201 (qualifies for the NCAAs as an individual) 

T3. Christo Lamprecht, Georgia      71-62-69--202

T3. Connor Howe, Georgia Tech     71-65-66--202

5. Segundo Pinto, Arkansas. 65-67-71--203

T23. Carson Herron, N. Mexico    67-70-71--210


Morgan Hill Regional

At The Institute Golf Club 

Par 72, 7,500 yards

Morgan Hill, Calif. 

Final results 

1. Mississippi State           276-298-289--853 (-1)

2. Brigham Young              288-296-284--868

3. Florida State                   281-296-294--871

4. Baylor                             285-294-294--873

5. Pepperdine                     284-298-293--875

Did not advance

6. California                        293-296-289--878

7. Missouri                          287-309-291--887

T8. Arizona                         298-297-294--889

T8. Louisville                      287-303-299--889 

10. North Carolina State    294-296-300--890

11. Grand Canyon U.         287-309-299--895

12. Charlotte                       285-317-295--897

13. Northern Colorado        306-316-305--927

Individiuals

1. Luke Clanton, Florida State                 70-70-70--210

T2. Riley Lewis, Loyola Marymount        71-72-69--212 (won playoff to qualify for NCAAs)

T2. Maximillian Steinlechner, NC State   70-70-72--212

T4. Zach Jones, Brigham Young              69-73-73--215

T4. Ben Woodruff, Charllotte                    70-75-70--215

T4. Charlie Crockett, Missouri                  70-73-72--215

T24. Derek Hitchner, Pepperdine          72-77--72--221

T32. Parker Reddig, Grand Canyon      71-79-72--222


Norman Regional

At Jimmy Austin OU Golf Club 

Par 72, 7,452 yards

Norman, Okla. 

Final results 

1. Alabama                                   281-280-275--836

2. Oklahoma                                 279-284-276--839

3. Colorado                                   284-281-276--841  

4. Texas Tech                               278-287-277--842

5. Duke                                         283-285-275--843

Did not advance

6. North Florida                           285-281-278--844

7. Wake Forest                           294-281-279--854

8. LSU                                         292-280-283--855

9. Kansas                                   288-289-281--858

10. Ole Miss                                293-280-286--859

11. UNCW                                  296-282-285--863

12. Princeton                             293-296-280--869

13. Louisiana                             297-290-287--874

14. Arkansas-Pine Bluff             313-307-306--926

Individuals 

1. Ludvig Aberg, Texas Tech          67-68-67--202

2. Drew Goddman, Oklahoma        66-70-67--203

3. Ben Lorenz, Oklahoma               68-72-66--206

T4. Will King, Kansas                     68-71-68--207 (won eight-hole playoff over Townsend to get individual spot in NCAAs)

T4. Hugo Townsend, Ole Miss       69-69-69--207

T4. Nick Dunlap, Alabama              66-71-70--207

T48. Cecil Belisle, Kansas           73-74-70--217

T61. Gunnar Broin, Kansas         76-75-74--225