ACU Kicks Off Postseason Play at WAC Championship in Arizona

Friday, April 25

Payson, Ariz.

Abilene Christian

WAC Championship

Preston Cooper takes a swing at the Trinity Forest Invitational at Trinity Forest Golf Club on Oct. 7, 2024.

ACU Kicks Off Postseason Play at WAC Championship in Arizona

4/24/2025 12:53:00 PM | Men's Golf

By: Luke White

LIVE SCORING

PAYSON, Ariz. - No. 143 Abilene Christian men's golf aims for its second Western Athletic Conference title in program history when it competes at the WAC Championship at The Golf Club at Chaparral Pines from Friday through Sunday. The Wildcats won the tournament in their debut WAC season in 2022 and came in fifth place last year.

ACU will compete for a spot in next month's NCAA Regionals, with the tournament's team and individual champions earning automatic berths.

The Wildcats garnered the nine-team field's fifth seed after collecting six top-four performances this season, five of which came consecutively. They opened the spring with four such outings in a row. In its last time out, ACU placed ninth at the Buckeye Classic in Columbus, Ohio on April 11-12.

Two-time reigning conference champion No. 52 Grand Canyon is the field's top seed, followed by No. 124 Utah Valley, No. 130 Utah Tech and No. 142 Seattle U. Backing up the Wildcats are No. 186 California Baptist, No. 195 Tarleton State, No. 271 UT Arlington and No. 284 Southern Utah.

Seattle U's Kevin Li is back in the fold after capturing the individual title as a freshman last season.

ACU has met UT Arlington in four tournaments this season while competing with California Baptist at Los Vaqueros Intercollegiate and Tarleton State at the Bentwater Intercollegiate. Seattle U hosted ACU at the Redhawk Invitational in the Wildcats' penultimate regular season outing.

Jaime Lewis, Trenton Johnson, Grégoire Hoyeau, Preston DeFriend and Jack Hollingsed are back in ACU's lineup from the Buckeye Classic, with Preston Cooper joining the action at the par 72, 7,019-yard course.

Johnson, Cooper and Lewis return to the WAC Championship after representing the Wildcats last season. Johnson tied for 14th as ACU's co-leader, while Cooper tied for 23rd and Lewis came in 55th.

Lewis powered the Wildcats with a 13th-place finish in Columbus as the only ACU golfer to score under par at 1-under 215. It was the third consecutive stroke play tournament that he led the Wildcats in scoring, tallying 11 birdies to tie for eighth in the field. Lewis recorded the team's fewest bogeys with 10.

Seeing his first action in over two months, Johnson tied for 34th place at 5-over 221. He paced the Wildcats on par 4s at 1 over, with his outing headlined by a five-birdie third round.

Like Johnson, Hoyeau notched a pair of 1-over 73 rounds to pull into a tie for 42nd place at 6-over 222. He tallied eight birdies while shooting 1-under on par 5s. DeFriend matched Hoyeau's showing on par 5s while tying for 61st at 12-over 228.

Hollingsed rounded out ACU's lineup at the Buckeye Classic in a tie for 66th at 15-over 231. He led the squad with 38 pars. Cooper last competed at the Redhawk Invitational, where he tied for 92nd place at 19-over 235.

ACU will tee off from 9:20-10 a.m. (MST) on Friday to begin the first round alongside golfers from Seattle U and California Baptist. Teams will play one round each day.