CSU headed to Alabama, CU to Oklahoma and UNC to California as 3 Colorado-based teams advance to men’s NCAA Division I regionals
By Gary Baines – 5/3/2023
The University of Colorado men’s golf program earned a full-team berth in the NCAA regionals for the first time in five years, ending the longest regional drought in the Buffs’ history. Meanwhile, the University of Northern Colorado is advancing to regionals for the first time since 2019.
Now those two teams — along with Colorado State, which is sending a full squad to regionals for the fourth time in the last five postseasons — are looking to end a considerably longer dry spell.
A men’s team from the Centennial State hasn’t advanced to the NCAA Division I nationals since 2011, when CSU went to the finals and finished 30th. It won’t be easy, but a good week at NCAA regionals could change that.
The men’s NCAA DI regional fields and seedings were announced on Wednesday on Golf Channel, and three of the five men’s DI teams in the state landed regional berths. Regionals will be held at six sites May 15-17.
— CSU, ranked 24th in the nation by Golfstat and 30th by Golfweek, will be seeded fourth out of 13 teams in the Auburn, Ala. regional, where Vanderbilt will be the top seed. The Rams, who have won three team titles this season (all in the fall), have been ranked in the top 30 in the nation for most of the 2022-23 campaign. In 2019, CSU came painfully close to advancing to the national championships as it went to a playoff for the final team berth but lost. Davis Bryant of Aurora, who’s now in his final season of college golf, was also on that 2019 Rams squad. Three players on the current CSU team own at least four top-10 individual finishes this season: Christoph Bleier (7, including second in a playoff at the Mountain West tournament), Bryant (5) and Connor Jones (4).
— CU (52nd Golfstat and 66th Golfweek), coming off a strong third-place showing at a stacked Pac-12 tournament, will be seeded ninth out of 14 teams in the Norman, Okla. regional. Texas Tech landed the first seed and host Oklahoma the second. This will be the Buffs’ first regional berth as a team since 2018 (there was no postseason in 2020 due to Covid-19). Dylan McDermott, a CU sophomore from Granite Bay, Calif., owns eight top-10 finishes in 11 tournaments this season, including a runner-up at the Pac-12 meet.
— UNC (189th Golfweek and 194th Golfstat) is coming off a victory in the Big Sky Championship, which resulted in an automatic NCAA regional berth for the Bears. Northern Colorado is seeded 13th out of 13 teams in Morgan Hill, Calif., where Pepperdine earned the top seed. Jack Castiglia of Lakewood leads the Bears with a 71.77 season-long stroke average, having finished second at the Big Sky meet.
Two out-of-state teams that include Coloradans on their rosters earned fourth seeds on Wednesday — Oklahoma State in Las Vegas and Arizona in Morgan Hill, Calif. Dillon Stewart of Fort Collins plays for OSU and Cal McCoy of Highlands Ranch for Arizona, but it’s uncertain if the Coloradans will be in the mix of players those teams take to regionals.
At each of the six 54-hole regionals, the top five team finishers and the low individual not on those teams will advance to the NCAA national championships, which is set for May 26-31 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
For the entire fields for the men’s NCAA Division I regionals, CLICK HERE.
About the Author: Gary Baines owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com