Top-ranked USC captured the NCAA Men’s Washington Regional by six strokes over Kent State at Aldarra Golf Club in Sammamish, Wash.
The Trojans claimed their fifth victory of the season and their third regional title, giving them another shot at their first national championship after finishing second last year and losing in the semifinals of match play two years ago.
“This week is always somewhat stressful,” said Coach Chris Zambri, who will take USC to the NCAA Championships for the 11th consecutive season. “We’re very happy it turned out how it did. Now we need to get ourselves ready for a big week in Chicago.”
The Trojans posted a score of 280-283-286–849, three-under-par, followed by Kent State at 287-282-286-855, while Florida State totaled 278-288-296–862 to tie for third with Alabama, which totaled 283-297-282–862, while Penn State was fifth at 290-288-285–863.
The top five teams advanced to the NCAA Championships on May 26-31 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill.
Texas A&M University was sixth at 287-296-284–867, followed by Washington at 295-286-288–869, San Diego State at 290-294-298–882, Texas El Paso at 297-294-293–884 and Michigan at 292-298-296–886.
Cole Miller of Penn State captured the individual title at 69-69-68–206, 7-under, while Sean Crocker of USC shot 64-74-71–209 to tie for second with Ian Holt of Kent State, who finished at 73-69-67–209, and Justin Suh of USC, who totaled 68-68-73–209.
Rico Hoey of USC finished at 70-70-70–210 to tie for fifth with Harry Ellis of Florida State, who wound up at 73-66-71–210, while Chandler Phillips of Texas A&M was seventh at 71-73-67–211.
Kyle Mueller of Michigan carded a score of 71-71-70–212 to tie for eighth with Lee Hodges of Alabama, who finished at 71-73-68–212 and Ryan Davis of Penn State, who came in at 75-69-68–212.
PJ Samiere of San Diego State tied for 22nd at 71-71-76–218, Tim Widing of San Francisco tied for 40th at 74-81-69–224, and Cole Madey of UCLA tied for 45th at 75-76-75–226.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion USC were Cheng Jin in a tie for 38th at 78-73-72–223 and Jonah Texeira in a tie for 47th at 78-72-77–227.
