GLEN ROSE, TEXAS – The UT Tyler men's golf team finished in fifth place and one stroke shy of qualifying for the team medal match play bracket at the 2022 Lone Star Conference Men's Golf Championships on Tuesday afternoon.
A final round 285 for the Patriots helped shatter the UT Tyler men's golf program record for low 54-hole total with a 21-under par score of 843 (282-276-285) for the event. That score was just one stroke shy of placing UT Tyler within the top four spots of the stroke play leaderboard as #7 Oklahoma Christian matched the low team score of the final round to jump UT Tyler and St. Mary's into fourth place with a 12-under par round of 276.
Sophomore
Jackson Powers finished in a tie for seventh place on the individual leaderboard with the second best 54-hole total in the history of the UT Tyler men's golf program, an 11-under par total of 205 (66-71-68) for the event. That performance is just two strokes shy of the best 54-hole hole finish by a Patriot golfer, a 13-under par 203 total posted back at the Rhodes College Fall Classic by Tyler Uhlig in the 2018-19 season.
Oklahoma Christian finished with an 842 final round, one stroke clear of UT Tyler, to join #16 Midwestern State, West Texas A&M and Cameron in the four-team medal match play bracket to be contested on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning at Squaw Valley Golf Club. Midwestern State will hold the no. 1 seed in that bracket after an 830 (283-271-276) in the stroke play portion of the tournament, followed by West Texas A&M (834) and Cameron (839) in the no. 2 and no. 3 seed's.
The fifth-place finish for UT Tyler behind the school record 54-hole total gives a Patriots squad consisting of all freshman and sophomores their best finish at the Lone Star Conference Men's Golf Championships after a tie for 10
th place finish at last year's version of the event.
UT Tyler knocked off a pair of foes ranked within the top 10 of the latest NCAA Division II South Central Regional Rankings in Texas A&M-Commerce (no. 6) and St. Mary's (no. 5), and will now wait to see if they are one of the 10 teams selected to compete in the 2022 NCAA Division II South Central/West Regional Championship on May 5-7.
That field will be announced on Friday, April 22
nd.
Powers was joined with an under-par final round on Tuesday morning by freshman
Jackson Naeger, who carded a 71 to finish in a tie for 19
th place with a 212 (73-68-71) total. Sophomore
Carter Lewis and freshman
Ryan Willis rounded out the four counting scores with 73's on Tuesday, while sophomore
Alex Kopenhaver fired a final round 74.
Lewis finished in a tie for 29
th place with a 215 (75-67-73) and Kopenhaver in a tie for 38
th place with a 219 (68-77-74). Willis rounded out the Patriot competitors with a 223 (80-70-73) and a tie for 47
th place finish.
