Friday, April 24, 2015

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PORTLAND, Ore. – The Simon Fraser and Western Washington men’s golf teams were two of 10 in the West Region that advanced to the Super Regional the NCAA announced Friday.

The West Regional, in conjunction with the South Regional, will be held May 4-6 at the Hiddenbrooke Golf Club in Vallejo, Calif. The 20-team regional will feature 108 student-athletes, including 11 from the GNAC.

The Clan and the Vikings will be making their second-straight NCAA Super Regional appearances together after being named the third and 10th seeds in the NCAA West Region.

On Tuesday, SFU won its first-ever GNAC championship title by beating the field by an outstanding 37 strokes. The Clan set tournament records for low 54-hole score (837) and largest margin of victory at the championship.

The Clan also finished 1-2-3-4 individually, highlighted by Bret Thompson’s 8-under and Chris Crisologo’s 7-under par. Both marks beat the previous GNAC championship record of 209 (-4).

Simon Fraser is the third-ranked team in Division II according to Golfstat. It also has two golfers in the top 10 in low-round average nationally in Kevin Vigna and Crisologo. Vigna is ranked sixth averaging 71.76 strokes per round while Crisologo is 10th at 71.96 strokes.

GNAC individual champion Thompson also makes the list tying for 28th with an average of 72.50 while senior John Mlikotic comes in at 55th with a 73.17 average.

Western Washington will be making its 17th-straight regional appearance. WWU has six top-five finishes this golf season, including a season-opening win at the Saint Martin’s Invitational and a second-place finish at the GNAC Championships Tuesday.

The Vikings are the 41st-ranked team in Division II. The team placed second at the conference tournament where Chris Hatch and Mark Strickland tied for eighth in the event. Kyle Lindor tied for 11th as well.

Also being one of only four individual qualifiers to make the field was Montana State Billings Jake Hedge. The senior had the fourth lowest average in the GNAC this season at 73.0 and finished tied for fifth at the GNAC Championships. Hedge has the 45th lowest-round average in Division II according to Golfstat.

The top-3 teams and top-2 golfers from each regional are guaranteed to advance to the NCAA National Championships May 18-22 at the Rock Barn Golf and Spa in Conover, N.C. 

A maximum of seven teams from any given regional may reach the NCAA Championships as eight remaining team berths will be granted following the automatic qualifiers.

NCAA REGIONAL FIELD - WEST REGION - 1. Cal State Monterey Bay 2. Cal State Chico 3. Simon Fraser 4. Dixie State 5. Sonoma State 6. Cal State Stanislaus 7. Cal State East Bay 8. Dominican (CA) 9. Cal State San Bernardino 10. Western Washington. SOUTH REGION - 1. Cameron 2. Western New Mexico 3. CSU - Colorado Springs 4. Colorado School of Mines 5. Colorado Christian 6. Midwestern State 7. St. Edwards 8. West Texas A&M 9. Dallas Baptist 10. St. Mary's (TX).

NCAA REGIONAL FIELD INDIVIDUALS - WEST REGION - 1. Kavan Eubank, Cal Baptist 2. Dalen Yamauchi, Hawaii Hilo 3. Jake Hedge, MSUB 4. Greg Gonzalez, Cal Baptist. SOUTH REGION - 1. James Bolton, Newman 2. Trevor McKune, Colorado Mesa 3. Jacob Allenback, CSU-Pueblo 4. Hagan Wood, Texas A&M Commerce.