The No. 16-ranked Abilene Christian golf team takes its first step to returning to the NCAA Division II national golf tournament for the first time since 2007 Monday at the Dustdevil Spring Open in Laredo. Head coach Mike Campbell returns a core of veterans that placed second at both the Lone Star Conference Championships and the NCAA Division II South Central Region a year ago.
Campbell's Wildcats earned an at-large bid to the national tournament in 2007 responding with an eighth place finish. In 2008, even though ACU placed second for the second-straight year in the regional tournament, the Wildcats were left out of nationals leaving the team hungry for a return in 2009.
“It's definitely our number one goal to get back to the national tournament,” Campbell said. “Our guys had a taste of it two years ago and it's quite an experience. I got to experience it twice as a player here and once as a coach. It's what we all strive for when we tee it up year after year and that's the ultimate goal.”
Senior Patrick Hanauer - last year's only all-conference honoree - is the only player left on the roster that competed in the 2007 national tournament and as a sophomore he averaged a 77. However, the Aachen, Germany native is joined by two other seniors and four sophomores from last year's roster along with two new freshmen.
Michael Andruchek (Flower Mound) and Hilton Funk return to round out the three seniors. Funk contributed last spring in four tournaments including a fourth-place overall finish at the Buffalo Stampede averaging a 74 in the two-round tournament.
Along with Hanauer, perhaps the biggest key for the Wildcats' success this season will come from underclassman Cyril Bounoil. Last year, he transferred in for the spring semester and had two top-10 finishes for the Wildcats including a fourth-place individual showing at the LSC Championships. This fall, Bounoil finished in the top 10 in all the tournaments and golfstat.com ranks him the ninth-best golfer in NCAA Division II.
Other returnees include sophomores Charles Levitte and Jeff Warr along with redshirt freshman Jose Gutierrez. Campbell also signed two high school golfers in the offseason with Southlake's Zach Sadau and Rowlett's Morgan Johnson joining the squad. Both players competed in the fall and Campbell said both players are progressing.
Monday, the Wildcats will begin spring play at the Laredo Country Club in the Texas A&M-International Spring Invitational.
“I think it will be a good tournament for us to get some early competition in,” said Campbell. “We chose the tournament because Laredo had a good chance of having warmer weather this early in the season, which is sometimes hard to come by.”
From there, ACU begins the journey in hopes of returning to the national tournament. But before that, the Wildcats will play in five tournaments including this week's before the LSC Championships April 20-21 in Thackerville, Okla. If ACU were to win a conference title, it would be the first since 1995. However, the Wildcats will have to contend with No. 2-ranked Central Oklahoma, Cameron (last year's LSC champion) and Northeastern State who also puts together a solid team from year to year.
If the Wildcats were to make their third-straight trip to the NCAA Regional Tournament, it would be May 4-6 in Allendale, Mich. followed by the national tournament in Blaine, Wash. May 19-22.
