FINAL RESULTS
MUSCLE SHOALS – Jacksonville State held on in Wednesday's final round to win its second-straight Ohio Valley Conference Men's Golf Championship and earn another trip to the NCAA Championship.
The Gamecocks shot a 300 on the par-72, 7,258-yard Fighting Joe Course at The Shoals on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail on Wednesday, capping a 54-hole score of 875 that edged second-place Eastern Kentucky by five shots. JSU claimed its seventh overall OVC men's golf championship and becomes the first program to win back-to-back championships since the Gamecocks' titles in 2011 and 2012.
JSU has now claimed five of the last eight OVC titles on the men's side. The seven overall OVC titles are the fifth-most of any OVC program but have all come since JSU joined the league in 2004. No other team has more than three in that span.
With its first victory of the season, Jacksonville State earns the OVC's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship. The 2018 field will be announced on the Golf Channel's Golf Central Pregame Show at 5 p.m. CT on the Golf Channel on Wednesday, May 2.
The NCAA Regionals will be held May 14-16 and take place at six sites – Bryan, Texas, Columbus, Ohio, Kissimmee, Florida, Norman, Oklahoma, Raleigh, North Carolina and Stockton, California. Following the Regionals the National Championship will be held May 25-30 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
JSU's freshman duo of
Jesus Dario Montenegro and
Quim Vidal Mora led the way over the three-day OVC Championship. They tied for third in the 55-player field and each earned OVC All-Tournament honors. Junior
Benedikt Thalmayr led the Gamecocks in the final round, shooting a 1-over 73 to climb into a tie for ninth.
Senior
Daniel Pico, the lone Gamecock back from the 2017 OVC Championship lineup, shot 76 on Wednesday and tied for 13th, while sophomore
Max Basler's 77 tied him for 33rd.
JSU entered the day with a 10-shot lead over EKU and saw the Colonels make a charge on the front nine. The lead had been cut to as few as three around the turn, but the Gamecocks were able to hold off the Colonels and secure the program's eighth NCAA Championship appearance since 2002.
