PETALUMA, Calif. –  Sonoma State’s men’s golf team built a seemingly insurmountable lead after two rounds of the NCAA Division West Regional tournament at par-72 Adobe Creek GC Tuesday.
 The Seawolves, the No. 1 regional seed and ranked No. 2 in the nation, stormed to a 19-shot lead over second-place Cal State Monterey Bay, carding a team score of 11-under-par 277 to go with a 3-under-par team effort (285) in Monday’s first round, which they ended up leading by eight shots.
  All-Americans Jarin Todd and Kyle Hopkins led the assault on par, with Todd shooting a 4-under-par 68 and Hopkins 3-under-par 69 following a first-round 77.
  Patrick Bauer and Jacob O’Keefe each shot 2-under 70 and Chris Galvin recorded an even-par 72. Amazingly, Galvin’s round, which included all pars, was tossed out with only the low four team scores counting.
  “The other teams didn’t play as well as I thought they might,” said SSU coach Val Verhunce. “But our team being 14 under was not a surprise to me . . . I can feel how well we’ve been playing recently.”
Cal State Monterey Bay is at 581, 19 shots behind SSU’s 562. Western Washington is in third place (585 strokes), Cal State San Bernardino is fourth (586) and Cal State Stanislaus fifth (588).
  The individual West Regional leader is Todd at 6-under-par 138. Bauer and Cal State Stanislaus golfer Erick Justesen are both at 4-under 140.
 Low round of the day was a course-record 66 shot by Alex Farrell of Nebraska-Kearney, competing in the Northwest Regional. Colorado-Colorado Springs leads the Northwest team standings by 11 shots.
There are eight teams here for the three-day West Regional, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Division II Nationals May 14-18 at Memorial Park GC in Houston.
   The winner of the West Regional as well as the Northwest Regional being held here at the same time advances to the nationals, with the next three lowest-scoring teams from t  the combined 16-team Super Regional field also moving on.
   Team ties will be broken by a sudden-death team playoff following today’s third round.
   In addition, the lowest individual golfer from each region advances to the nationals although that player can be one of the five individuals entered from each region or a player on a team that does not qualify for the nationals.
   Former Ukiah High star athlete Ryan Sperry was one of those individuals in contention   for a spot in the nationals after shooting 74-68—142, two under par.
 In Houston there will be 10 regional champs as well as 10 at-large teams.
Sonoma State, in only its fifth year with a golf program, made it to the 2007 nationals in Michigan, finishing 13th in a field of 20 teams.

West Region Statistics


Northwest Region Recap

   PETALUMA, Calif. –  Colorado-Colorado Springs grabbed an 11-stroke lead over Minnesota State-Mankato after two rounds of the NCAA Division II Northwest Regional being played at par-72 Adobe Creek GC.
   The two teams were tied after Monday’s first round. The final round will be played    today but Colorado Springs’ Tuesday effort all but nails down a trip to the nationals.
   Nebraska-Kearney is in third place at 597 strokes with Western New Mexico fourth at 600.  The best round of the day was turned in by Nebraska-Kearney’s Alex Farrell, who set a course record with a 6-under-par 66.
   There are eight teams here for the three-day Northwest Regional, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Division II Nationals May 14-18 at Memorial Park GC in Houston.
    The winner of the Northwest Regional as well as the West Regional being held here at the same time advances to the nationals, with the next three lowest-scoring teams from t the combined 16-team Super Regional field also moving on.
   Team ties will be broken by a sudden-death team playoff following the third round today.
   In addition, the lowest individual golfer from each region advances to the nationals although that player can be one of the five individuals entered from each region or a player on a school that does not qualify for the nationals.
    Matt Pridey of Augustana had the low two-round score among individuals with a 150, but several players on teams entered who will probably not quality as at-large entrants posted lower scores, including Scott Crichton of Western New Mexico (143), Farrell (144), Colorado-Colorado Springs’ Tyler Bishop (146), St. Cloud State’s Travis Ross (146),  Colorado State-Pueblo’s David Duarte (146), Minnesota-Mankato’s Kyle Welch (147) and Fort Lewis’s Luke Tanner (148).

Northwest Region Statistics