Wright State golf team will playin regionals at Ohio State course
The Wright State golf team really didn’t care where it was sent for the NCAA regionals. A record-setting season has first-year coach Conner Lash and his deep squad believing they can compete with anyone, anywhere.
But Ohio State is one of six regional sites, and just before the field for the Scarlet Course was revealed Wednesday on the Golf Channel, the players leaned forward in their seats, and some put the arms around each other in hopeful anticipation.
An audible cheer went up as the Raiders saw they’d be the 12th seed among 13 teams playing May 16-18 in Columbus.
Oklahoma State is the No. 1 seed, followed by Georgia Tech, Arkansas and Clemson. Ohio State is the sixth seed.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of support,” Lash said. “The guys have played the course. They know what to expect.
“Personally, I think we’re better than the 12th spot there. We’ll use that as motivation. They said it’ll be the hardest region to get out of, but that will only motivate us, too. We’ll see what we can do against the top dogs.”
The Raiders are making their sixth NCAA trip. They were 13th of 14 teams in the regionals in Pullman, Wash., in 2019.
In their four other appearances, they were 27th of 27 teams in 2004 (there were only three regionals then), 23rd of 27 in 2003, 21st of 27 in 2000 and 16th of 21 in 1990.
But they’ve won nine of 12 tournaments in 2021-22, all of them with fields of 10 or more teams. They captured the Horizon League title by nine strokes.
“The biggest thing anyone ever told me is they’re human, too. They’re just flesh and bones. They’re not robots, they’re not anything special,” said No. 1 player Tyler Goecke, a junior from Carroll who was named HL
golfer of the year this week.
“They’re going to threeputt and hit it in the water. We’ve got to not let the name on the bag intimidate us.”
Goecke, who’s on pace to shatter the program record for lowest career average (he’s at 71.77 for 69 rounds), played the course twice at the state in high school. Three other starters also competed at the state.
“It’s a little different than flying out west and getting one round in before the tournament,” Goecke said. “We’ve played it before. We know the course. We can start preparing (mentally) now. It helps us for sure.”
Lash, who was named league coach of the year, plans some road trips before the official practice round May 15. They’ll play Moraine C.C. and Tartan Field G.C. in Columbus.
“We’re going to get a couple rounds in at some harder courses to get ready for Scarlet,” he said. “We know the golf course. So, at the end of the day, we at least have that under our belt. We’re looking forward to getting there and playing well.”
There were 30 automatic bids and 51 at-large selections for regionals. The low five teams at each site advance to the national championships in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Kent State is seeded 10 out of 13 teams in the Norman, Okla., regional, which is hosted by Big 12 champion and the nation’s No. 1 team, Oklahoma.
The Golden Flashes won the MAC tourney for the sixth straight year, and fifthyear senior Josh Gilkison of Springboro won the individual title.
His brother, Jordan Gilkison, was named MAC freshman of the year. He was a 2020 state champ.