Abilene Christian
NCAA DII National Championship
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Wildcats Tee Off At NCAA's
5/14/2011 11:14:51 PM | Men's Golf
FLORENCE, Ala. – The ACU men's golf team will take aim at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at The Shoals for the 49th NCAA Division II National Championships playing the Fighting Joe Course. The Wildcats make their first trip to the National Tournament since 2007 while reigning champion Cyril Bouniol looks to defend his 2010 title.
The 2011 Championships will feature a new format as for the first time the winner will be determined in Match Play. After the first three rounds the individual champion will be crowned after Wednesday's third round, with the final eight teams being paired for match play on Thursday and Friday. The Final eight teams will play a quarterfinal round (1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5) with the final four teams squaring off Thursday afternoon. The reaming two teams will meet in the Championship Final on Friday to determine the 2011 team champion.
ACU is coming off a share of a Regional Championship with Central Oklahoma as the Wildcats make their 13th total appearance. ACU is also one of four teams to have claimed a national title with their only championship coming in 1993 when Jeev Singh took home the Wildcats first individual championship as well.
The Wildcats will tee off at the Fighting Joe Course on Monday morning in the first pairing starting at 7:30 a.m. off the No. 1 tee with Lynn University and California State-Monterey Bay.
Mike Campbell's Wildcat squad has been led this spring by senior Cyril Bouniol and sophomore Alex Carpenter. Bouniol enters the Championships as the defending National Champion while Carpenter is the all-time wins leader at ACU with 11 surpassing Singh's total of six.
Last week Bouniol defended his NCAA Regional Title shooting a first and second low round to take a -7, 209 for his second straight Regional Championship. Bouniol's first place finish gives him four tournament wins in his career and three top five finishes during this spring.
Carpenter who had an unprecedented streak winning seven of eight tournaments dating from September 28, to March 29 ending with the DBU Patriot Invite, finished no higher than 9th heading into the Lone Star Championships. The sophomore did struggle, along with the rest of the field, at the NCAA Regional's where he finished tied for 45th.
Along with Carpenter and Bouniol is Midland native Tyler Sheppard who has been in contention looking for his first tournament win in nearly every tournament this spring. Sheppard has six top 20 finishes and two top 10s in 12 tournaments this year.
Rounding out the top five for the Wildcats are sophomore Kyle Dickerson and freshman Trey Sullivan. Dickerson has played in eight tournaments this year with three top 25 finishes. Sullivan a freshman from Fort Worth has been outstanding for ACU in the Championships including a 14th place finish at the LSC Championships and an 18th place finish at the NCAA South Central/Midwest Regional.
Follow all the action at this link, or on the ACUsports Facebook page for live tournament updates.
