Bentley Receives 7th Straight Bid to NCAA East/Atlantic Golf Regional
WALTHAM, Mass. – The field for the 2017 NCAA Division II regional golf tournaments was announced late Friday afternoon with Bentley University included for the seventh consecutive year and the 12th time in the last 16 years. The Falcons were an at-large selection and the number seven seed in the East Regional.
The East and Atlantic regional tournaments will be held jointly at The Resort at Glade Springs in Daniels, W.V. May 8-10. The top three teams and the top two student-athletes not with a qualifying team will advance to the finals, which will be held May 22-26 at Reunion Resort in Kissimmee, Fla.
The automatic qualifiers in the East Region were Le Moyne College from the Northeast-10 Conference and Wilmington University (Del.) from the Central Atlantic Athletic Conference.
The other at-large selections, in addition to the Falcons, are Concordia (N.Y.), Dominican (N.Y.), Franklin Pierce, Roberts Wesleyan, Saint Rose, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Southern New Hampshire.
Five of the ten teams are out of the Northeast, three call the CACC home and there are two from the East Coast Conference.
The ten teams out of the Atlantic Region include automatic qualifiers Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference), Virginia at Wise (Mountain East Conference) and Chowan (Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association).
Bentley, which has gained an NCAA bid in each of coach Mickey Herron's seven years at the helm, won two tournaments this season (Quechee Division II Challenge in September and its own Newport National Classic earlier this month). The Falcons were also third in both the Division II New Englands and AIC Invitational, and competed against national competition in Colorado and Alabama last month.
Junior Cal Meyers (Richfield, Wisc./Slinger HS) has been Bentley's top golfer this season, leading the Falcons in five different tournaments, including this past weekend's Colgate Robert Trent Jones Individual Shootout where he lost in a playoff after a 74-72-146. He has a 75.4 average and has shot 75 or better in seven of his last nine rounds.
Other regulars in Herron's lineup are junior Brett Chatfield (Attleboro/Bishop Feehan HS) and sophomores Doug Kulikowski (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland HS) and Chris Simione (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire HS). Kulikowski and Simione both have stroke averages just under 78 and Simione is just over that level.
All four participated in last year's regional with Chatfield and Meyers expected to compete for the third straight year.
Rounding out the list of Bentley players who'll be competing in the regional is junior Chris Ehl (Reading/Reading HS). He recorded a 78.3 stroke average this season.
Bentley has finished 13th the last two years after a sixth-place showing in 2014. Meyers tied for tenth place with a 54-hole score of 224.