Joe Highsmith of Pepperdine claimed the individual title, but Arizona defeated the defending NCAA Division I champion Waves by five strokes in the Bryan Regional at Traditions Golf Club in Bryan, Texas.
Arizona posted a score of 276-287-288—851, 13-under-par, while Pepperdine finished second at 279-289-288—856, followed by Texas A&M at 280-286-294—860, Georgia at 279-285-299—863, and Kansas at 289-287-291—867.
The top five teams advanced to the NCAA Championships on May 27-June 1 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“I am incredibly proud of our entire program for accomplishing our key goals,” Arizona Coach Jim Anderson said. “We set out at the beginning of the year with our sights set on Scottsdale and winning a very competitive regional on top of that is another feather in our cap.
“Hats off to our guys for maintaining focus and staying hungry throughout a long year to play some outstanding golf this week and send us through to NCAA Championships.”
The top five teams advanced to the NCAA Championships on May 27-June 1 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
SMU was sixth at 288-293-297—878, followed by Tennessee at 295-284-301—880, Michigan State at 293-295-296—884, Oregon State at 285-290-310—885, Colorado State at 293-303-292—888, Boise State 296-301-305—902, Southern Louisiana at 306-296-301—903, and Texas Southern at 312-316-328—956.
Highsmith (pictured), a senior from Lakewood, Wash., claimed the third victory of his college career with a score of 69-72-69—210, while his Pepperdine teammate William Mouw shot 71-69-71—211 to tie for second with Chase Sienkiewicz of Arizona, who wound up at 65-74-72—211, while Walker Lee of Texas A&M was fourth at 71-70-71—212.
“It’s great because the No. 1 goal this week was just to get through the Regionals and get to the National Finals,” said Highsmith, who played a key role as the Waves claimed the NCAA title last season. “All the guys showed up this week and gutted it out.
“It was great to win the individual title, but as I said the goal this week was to move on to the Finals, but to win is just a bonus.”
Aymeric Laussot of TCU totaled 71-73-69—213 to tie for fifth with Canon Claycomb of Alabama, who finished at 72-70-71—213, Maxwell Ford of Georgia, who wound up at 69-73-71—213, Noah Goodwin of SMU 71-68-74–213, and Carson Barry of Oregon State, who came in at 70-69-74—213.
Derek Hitchner of Pepperdine shot 67-72-75—214 to tie for 10th with Christian Banke of Arizona, who finished at 68-70-76—214.
Riley Lewis of Loyola Marymount tied 19th at 74-71-73—218.
Rounding out the scoring for Pepperdine were Dylan Menante in a tie for 39th at 72-76-74—222, and Joey Vrzich in solo 44th at 72-77-74—223.
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