Colorado Christian men's golf moves on to match play at NCAAs

The Colorado Christian men's golf team had a tough day on Thursday but held on to advance to match play at the NCAA Division II Championship.

The tournament continues Friday at Orange County National Golf Center in Winter Garden, Fla.

The Cougars were in good shape heading into the final day of stroke play but struggled to a 7-over par team score which dropped them to the sixth seed after being second going into the day. They finished at even par for the three-day stroke play.

Adam Duncan led the way for the Cougars with 3-under 68 to finish in a tie for 10th on the individual side. Xavier Bighaus, who started the day just three strokes off the lead, shot 78 to fall to a tie for 29th.

The top eight teams after 54 holes of stroke play are placed into a bracket and seeded based on 54-hole scores. The pairings for the quarterfinals will be No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5 competing in head-to-head medal play.

The Cougars, who will face No. 3 seed Central Oklahoma in the first round, still have a chance to achieve the lofty goals they set at the beginning of the season.

"We're preparing to go win the national championship, so that's the way that we've been thinking about the season," Hull, who took the program over in 2005, told The Denver Gazette in February. "If we prepare that way, then probably a lot of good things will happen."

It has already been a banner season for Colorado Christian.

They won their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title this season where Duncan claimed the individual title. At NCAA regionals, the Cougars' Dylan Arthur took the top spot with the team finishing second.

"Everyone being like-minded and having the same goals in mind makes it really easy for us to get along," Bighaus told The Denver Gazette about the team. "It's easy to be hanging out and trying to push each other to be the best we can."

Also on Thursday, the Cougars earned a clean RMAC sweep of golfer of the year, freshman of the year and coach of the year while placing five golfers on the all-conference list.

Duncan was RMAC Golfer of the Year, Bradley Mulder earned RMAC Freshman of the Year and Hull was coach of the year. Arthur, Bighaus and Peyton Jone made the all-conference team.