DEARBORN, Mich. – The only team in NCAA Division II to reach medal match play five-consecutive years, the defending National Champion Arkansas Tech men's golf team had their 2021-22 season come to a close on Thursday narrowly dropping their quarterfinal match to top-seeded Central Missouri 3-2-0.
NATIONAL QUARTERFINAL MATCH RESULTS
The Wonder Boys' match with Central Missouri was the closest-contested of all the quarterfinals and it was not decided in its totality until the final few holes.
UCM grabbed the early advantage winning the first match by five strokes. The Wonder Boys then evened things up with First Team All-American golfer
Francois Jacobs winning his match by two strokes. The deciding hole in Jacobs' match ended up being No. 17 as he took a two-stroke lead with a four, while his counterpart Sam Parrott carded a six. Jacobs and Parrott then each shot a five on No. 18 to close the match.
The third match on the course gave the Wonder Boys a 2-1 lead as
Santiago De La Fuente won his match against Thomas Henson by five strokes. After tying the first hole, De La Fuente took a lead in Hole 2 and never looked back. Through the front-nine, De La Fuente had built up a three-shot lead. On the back-nine, the lead got as large as six strokes before ultimately ending with a five-stroke advantage to De La Fuente.
In the fourth match,
Henry Frizzell jumped out to a healthy lead through six holes, but UCM's Matt Hoemann battled back to tie the match through 13 holes. Still tied through 14, Frizzell reclaimed a one-shot lead that he held through Hole 16. The match flipped in favor of UCM on 17 as Hoemann went from down a stroke to up a stroke. Both Hoemann and Frizzell carded fives on Hole 18 to end the match with the narrow margin.
The final match pitted upstart
Holden Hamilton against UCM's top golfer from their stroke play lineup, Nick Westrich.
After tying the first hole, Westrich grabbed a stroke lead over Hamilton on Hole 2. He held the advantage throughout most of the front-nine until Hole 9 where Hamilton swung a one-stroke deficit into a one-stroke lead after shooting five on the hole and Westrich shooting seven.
The match the tied on 10 and remained tied through 12. On 13, Hamilton took another one-shot lead, but saw that flip the other way after play concluded on 14. Hamilton then got the match back to even on 15.
Unfortunately, the match took a turn in the way of UCM on 16 as Westrich gained a three-shot lead. He added another stroke cushion on 17, but Hamilton battled to the end and got a stroke back on 18 to conclude the match down three strokes.
