ST. GEORGE, Utah – The Western Washington University men’s golf team saw its historic 2018-19 season come to a close on Saturday, unable to climb the leaderboard in the final round of the NCAA Division II West/South Central Super Regional played at The Ledges Golf Club.
Starting the final round in 9th place, the Vikings knew they would have to record a low round to move into the top four to advance to nationals. WWU ended up dropping in the 20-team field to finish in 16th place with a 8-over-par 296 team score. The Vikings completed the 54-hole, three-round tournament at 17-over-par 881.
Playing in its 21st consecutive NCAA II Regional Championships, WWU entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the West Region and ranked No. 4 nationally. The Vikings won six of 11 tournaments during the 2018-19 season, the second-most wins in program history, and won a ninth Great Northwest Athletic Conference team title.
“This happens a lot in golf…where the team wanted it so bad and you try so hard, but golf doesn’t work that way,” said head coach Luke Bennett. “The team had a great season and my three seniors were a huge part of that. I can’t thank Nick (Sparling), Cody (Roth) and Michael (Butler) enough for all they did for this program.”
Senior Nick Sparling (Dublin, OH/Dublin Coffman/Ohio State) led the Vikings at 2-over-par 218 for the tournament to tie for 38th-place. Sparling fired a final-round score of 1-over-par 73, to go with a matching 73 in the first round and even-par 72 in the second round. Sparling recorded a team-best 10 birdies in the tournament, to go along with 33 pars.
Senior Cody Roth (Bellingham, WA) finished in a tie for 42nd at 3-over-par 219, firing a final-round 2-over-par 74.
Sophomore Brody Bonfilio (Boise, ID/Bishop Kelly) tied for 53rd at 5-over-par 221 and freshman Jordan Lee (Tacoma, WA/Bellarmine Prep) tied for 66th at 7-over-par 223.
Tournament host Dixie State led from wire-to-wire to win the regional championship with a team score of 17-under-par 847, which included a final round 6-under-par 282. UC San Diego recorded the lowest round team score in the tournament at 13-under-par 275 on Saturday, moving up to 2nd place to punch its ticket to nationals (-13, 851). Cal State Monterey Bay (-3, 861) and Sonoma State (-2, 862) recorded the third and fourth qualifying spots for the NCAA II Championships that will be played May 20-24 at The Resort at Glade Springs in Daniels, West Virginia.
Colorado Christian junior Chase Carlson (Tacoma, WA/Puyallup) recorded a one-stroke victory for individual medalist honors at 12-under-par 204. Carlson fired a final-round score of 3-under-par 69 to edge UC San Diego’s Hayden Hui (-11, 205).
