INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – For the second straight season, No. 13 Carson-Newman is headed to the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Tournament, placing eighth in the region, as announced by the NCAA earlier this evening.
Carson-Newman makes its sixth appearance at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Tournament since 2016. In C-N's most recent trip to the regional tournament, it finished 11th place.
"We are happy to accept a bid to the NCAA regional tournament," Carson-Newman head coach Randy Wylie said. "Our team was a little worried after a mediocre performance at the conference championships, but our play throughout the year certainly shows we deserve to be included in that event. I'm happy for our players and confident that we can make it to the finals."
Joining C-N from the Southeast region was Anderson, North Georgia, Georgia Southwestern, Clayton State, Lincoln Memorial, Barton, Lander, Limestone and USC Aiken in that order. Anderson, Georgia Southwestern and Barton secured the automatic bids. Four South Atlantic Conference teams are set to compete at the regional tournament, the most among the three conferences in the Southeast region.
Among the 20 teams from both regions that will compete, 14 are ranked in the top 25. Also, the entire top five will play in the South/Southeast regional.
The NCAA South/Southeast Regional tournament will be held at the Grande Oaks Golf Club in Davie, Fla from May 11-13.
Randy Wylie's crew has been nationally ranked every week this season, with its highest ranking coming in the most recent Bushnell Golfweek Division II Coaches Poll at 13.
No. 13 Carson-Newman's best team performance of the 2022-23 season came at the 2023 Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate. C-N ran away with the championship putting together the third consecutive best team round of the event. It becomes the first team in Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate history to win back-to-back championships. The Eagles remain the only team to win this tournament multiple times. C-N beat No. 5 North Georgia by 20 strokes.
The Eagles managed four other top five finishes throughout the 2022-23 season. C-N's lowest team round was 277, which came in the second round of the Citrus Intercollegiate back on Nov. 10. C-N recorded 57 par or better rounds during the season.
In his first and only season with C-N, Hayden Hunneke (Chattanooga, Tenn.) certainly made his mark with the program. The first-team all-conference selection had 19 of his 27 rounds this season be par or better, the most in program history. Hunneke's current 71.4 scoring average is best mark in program history and third lowest for a single season.
Joining Hunneke on the All-SAC First Team was graduate student Jake Mynatt (Knoxville, Tenn.). His 5th season was his best season with the Eagles. He had a career low 71.6 scoring average in 24 rounds this season. Mynatt shot a career-best 66 in the final round of the Citrus Intercollegiate to end the fall season. The graduate student also had a career best six top 20 finishes. His 118 rounds played are most in program history.
At a minimum, the top three teams and the top two student-athletes not with a team from each regional will advance to the finals. The remaining eight team berths will be allocated based on the regions represented in the prior year's head-to-head medal play portion of the championships. The maximum number of teams from a region is capped at seven. The DII Men's Golf Championship will be held at Avalon Lakes Country Club in Warren, OH on May 22-26.
