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College Sports
Late stumble costs Bulldogs NCAA championship berth MOORESVILLE -- With three holes to play, the Barton College men's golf team's hopes for a fourth trip in five years to the NCAA Division II men's golf championship tournament skidded off course and crashed Wednesday. The Bulldogs' fivesome had a three-stroke lead for the fifth and final place in the Div. II Atlantic/Southeast Super Regional but fumbled its way to 10-over on the final three holes. That collapse allowed Clayton (Ga.) State to slide into the national berth with a team score of 901 to Barton's 904 for 72 holes at The Point Lake and Golf Club. Lander (S.C.) University turned in a 902 to send the Bulldogs to a seventh-place finish. "Clayton was on their van ready to go and someone told them they needed to hold on," Bulldogs head coach John Hackney lamented. "Like (Barton sophomore) Stephen Harrison said, it was a team choke. It wasn't just one guy." One player did have a great tournament for Barton, as freshman Daniel Castleberry claimed the Atlantic Regional individual crown by firing a 33-37--70 over the par-72, 7,037-yard layout for the second straight day to edge Belmont Abbey College's Connor Tomlinson by a stroke. In previous years, Castleberry's 77-70-70 would have been eligible to play in the national tournament as an individual, but the rules changed, Hackney said. Now, just the best score from a non-qualifying team gets the bid, which went to Carson-Newman College's Brad Robinson and his score of 71-72-70--213. Robinson finished two strokes behind super regional medalist Niclas Johansson of Southeast Regional king Georgia College and State. Besides Castleberry, Harrison, a Greenfield School product, was the only other Bulldog to finish in the top 10. Playing with a knee brace to protect an already torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, Harrison was steady with a 76-76-74--226, tying him with two others for 10th. Junior Jonathan Burke, the Conference Carolinas Player of the Year, had what Hackney termed as a "mediocre" tournament. Burke, from Charles B. Aycock High School, went 74-76-77--227 to tie for 11th place. Barton's two seniors Neal Jones and Joe Elwell had rough final rounds as collegians. Jones' roller-coaster ride ended with an 85, 15 strokes higher than Tuesday's round of 70. Jones began the tournament with an 80. Elwell struggled throughout, putting up an 82-77-84--243. "They were very disappointed," Hackney said of his players. "It's hard to get to a national championship, and we've been fortunate to go the last few years "... We had it and nobody took it from us, and that's what makes it harder. We gave it away, and that's the bottom line." The Bulldogs finished second in the Atlantic Regional, 15 shots behind Conference Carolinas rival Belmont Abbey. The Crusaders will join Georgia College and State, which turned in a super regional low score of 872, along with at-large entries University of South Carolina-Aiken (885), Newberry (Ga.) College (891) and Clayton State. The feelings of disappointment won't completely obscure Barton's accomplishments this school year, having won the Pfeiffer Universiy Fall Intercollegiate tournament in October and the Bulldogs' 2 Targets-Barton College Intercollegiate in March. "We won two tournaments, we were ranked No. 1 in the region for most of the year. We were ranked as high as 18th on (collegiate golf Web site) Golfstat," Hackney said. "We had a good year but just couldn't close the deal."
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