Camden native and Husson duo advance in NCAA golf tourneys

Cole Anderson of Camden and his Florida State Seminoles advanced to the NCAA Division I Golf Championships after finishing second at the Stanford Regional in California on Wednesday.

Topsham’s Caleb Manuel and his Georgia Bulldogs failed to move on after tying for seventh at the Austin Regional in Texas.

In the Division III championships at the Legacy Golf Club in Boulder City, Nevada, the Husson University team from Bangor finished 22nd after two rounds and failed to move on to the next round. Only the top 18 teams advanced.

However, six golfers with the lowest scores from teams that didn’t advance also qualified and two of them were Husson’s Chris Kauppila and Jack King.

It is the first time in program history that two Husson golfers made the cut dating back to when Husson became a full-time member of the NCAA in 2004. Eric Dugas was the last one to advance in 2018.

Play continued on Thursday.

In Division I, just the top five teams from the six regionals qualified for the 30-team NCAA Championships which will be held at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Cal. from May 24-29.

After three days of stroke play competition, the top 15 teams will advance and play another round after which the eight teams with the lowest scores move on to match play beginning with the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinal winners move on to the semifinals and the semifinal victors play for the national title.

Anderson and his Seminoles team reached the semifinals last season where they were beaten 3-2 by eventual national champion Florida.

At the regional played on the Stanford Golf Course, redshirt senior Anderson fired a 5-under-par 205 (66-67-72) to tie for 10th individually and his Seminoles registered a 28-under-par 812 to finish eight strokes behind regional winner Illinois.

He had the third-best score on his team behind Frederik Kjettrup’s 11-under-par 199 and Luke Clanton’s 10-under par 200.

Senior Manuel shot an 11-over-par 224 (71-74-79) at the Austin Regional which left him in a tie for 56th.

He was fourth best on his team.

Georgia shot an 11-over-par 863 which was nine shots adrift of Wake Forest (N.C.) which  claimed the fifth and final spot from the Austin Regional by virtue of a tie-breaker with Brigham Young University (Utah).

In the Division III championships, Husson’s 22nd place finish was the program’s best since the 2018 team tied for 19th.

Husson shot 296-302-598 through two rounds which left them 10 shots away from making the cut.

King, a senior from Barton, Vermont, shot a 2-under par 142 (71-71) to land himself in a six-way tie for 14th while former Old Town High School standout Kauppila, who is also a senior, shot an even-par 144 (71-73) to tie for 31st.