Men’s golf selected to NCAA tournament; Lady Hawks just miss cut
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The seventh-ranked Huntingdon men's golf team was one of 41 teams selected on Monday to compete in the 2016 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships.
The national tournament will be held on May 10-13 at Midvale Country Club and Mendon Golf Club in Rochester, New York.
"This is a great opportunity and our guys have worked really hard to be in this position," Huntingdon Director of Golf Dave Schreyer said. "We're excited to be a part of it and I expect a good showing. Our guys are on top of their games right now and looking forward to being in the mix."
This is the first time Huntingdon has qualified for the NCAA Tournament since 2012 and the ninth time since 2005.
Huntingdon qualified with a Pool C bid. A total of 33 teams received an automatic berth in the tournament as conference champions. Two teams were chosen from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification.
Pool C bids are reserved for teams from automatic-qualifying conferences, who did not win their conference, and the remaining Pool B teams. The top five individuals, who have not qualified with a team, round out the field of 210 golfers.
Huntingdon finished the season as the runner-up in the USA South Athletic Conference Tournament. In addition to Huntingdon, two other teams from the USA South qualified for the tournament.
Defending national champion Methodist won the conference title and 2015 national runner-up LaGrange received a Pool C bid. LaGrange was third behind Methodist and Huntingdon in the USA South Tournament.
On the women's side, in their eighth season of competition, the 14th-ranked Lady Hawks just missed out on their first berth in the Division III Women's Golf Championships.
"It looks like we missed out on an at-large bid by one spot this year," Schreyer said. "We're on the verge of being a top-10 team in the country, but we underachieved a little with our level of play this year. Hopefully we will learn from it, work a little harder and be a little stronger next year."
The complete field for the 2016 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships is listed below.
Teams
* Denotes Conference Champions
B – Denotes Pool B
C – Denotes Pool C
1. Augsburg*
2. Babson*
3. Berry – (C)
4. Carroll (Wisconsin)*
5. Christopher Newport University*
6. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps*
7. Concordia University-Texas*
8. Crown (Minnesota)*
9. Emory – (B)
10. Franklin & Marshall*
11. Grove City*
12. Hope*
13. Huntingdon College – (C)
14. Husson*
15. Illinois Wesleyan*
16. LaGrange – (C)
17. Luther*
18. Manhattanville*
19. Marywood*
20. Methodist*
21. Middlebury*
22. Oglethorpe*
23. Otterbein*
24. Penn State-Behrend*
25. Rhode Island College*
26. Rhodes – (C)
27. Rutgers-Camden*
28. Skidmore*
29. Spalding*
30. St. John Fisher*
31. St. Joseph (Long Island)*
32. St. Thomas (Minnesota) – (C)
33. Stevenson*
34. Southwestern (Texas) – (B)
35. Texas-Tyler – (C)
36. Transylvania*
37. Washington and Lee*
38. Western New England*
39. Wisconsin-Lutheran*
40. Whitworth*
41. Wittenberg*
Individuals
1. Mats Heien, Mary Hardin-Baylor
2. Phillip Stewart, Schreiner
3. James Lasher, Allegheny
4. Evan Cox, Virginia Wesleyan
5. Brady Hanson, Wisconsi-Eau Claire