After a 30-minute fog delay in the morning in Urbana, Ill., Big West champion Long Beach State rounded out their NCAA Regionals competition with a team score of 2-over 286 on Wednesday from Atkins Golf Club.
Coupled with the first two rounds, LBSU carded a 54-hole aggregate score of 14-over 866 amongst a regional field that featured eight ranked teams. The Beach landed in ninth overall with the top five squads and low individual advancing to the NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
Individually, Big West Golfer of the Year Charlie Forster powered the team with a trio of under-par rounds, including a 2-under 69 in the final 18 holes to close the week at 5-under 208 in a three-way tie for eighth place. Forster carded 12 birdies at the 7,533-yard Par 71 course en route to the Top 10 finish in a final collegiate event. The Winchester, England, native’s Top 10 was a seventh of the season and just one stroke out of the Top 5.
The pairing of Alejandro de Castro Piera and Jack Cantlay shot rounds of 1-over 72 with Clay Seeber’s 2-over 73 rounding out the countable scores on the day. Big West individual medalist Krishnav Nikhil Chopraa got an eagle on the 559-yard Par 5 sixth hole to highlight his round.
Statistically, Forster tied for third in the field with a 4.22 strokes per hole average on the Par 5s, playing the grouping at seven under on the week, with Cantlay a steady even-par on the short holes to tie for fourth in the field.
The five squads heading to California are host Illinois and Oklahoma State, who finished knotted at 15-under, along with UNLV, Troy and Texas Tech. Those five teams were the only ones to close the three-day even with scores in the red. With just one individual advancing from each regional to the final site, Michigan’s Hunter Thomson took the honors as the regional medalist with a total score of 10-under 203, one better than Ryan Ford of Cincinnati.
In what proved to be yet another round delayed by weather, Tegan Andrews of Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly’s Baron Szeto finished up play at the Reno Regional, held at Montreaux Golf & Country Club.
Picking up midway through the second round with a start delayed by frost, Andrews finished the round at even par and in 27th place. Szeto’s morning saw the round close at 6-over 80 as the field took to the course in the afternoon for the third and final round. All three rounds needed shotgun starts to get the competition in the books.
In the final 18 holes, Szeto put together an even-par round with three birdies and an eagle on the 5-18-yard Par 5 13th hole, which was the seventh hole of the round for the senior from Moraga, Calif., who finished in a three-way tie for 27th. The last round for Andrews saw the redshirt senior from Agoura Hills, Calif., carding a five-over 77 to finish in an eight-way tie in 39th place.