The Kansas State men’s golf team remains on track to qualify for its first NCAA Championship, but with zero margin for error.
With a score of 4-over-par 292 Tuesday the Wildcats held onto fifth place in the NCAA Bremerton Regional at Gold Mountain Golf Course in Bremerton, Washington. The tournament concludes Wednesday with the top five teams advancing to nationals May 23-28 in Carlsbad, California.
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The 10th-seeded Wildcats, who were tied for fourth after one round, have just a one-shot cushion over sixth-place Charlotte with South Florida and Utah lurking two back at 8-under. Kansas is in 10th place at 16-over, 10 shots below the qualifying line.
K-State senior Cooper Schultz, the co-leader with Florida’s Luke Poulter at 4-under Monday, dropped into a three-way tie for sixth with an even-par 72 in the second round. Florida’s Matthew Kress tops the leaderboard heading into Wednesday’s final round at 10-under, one shot ahead of Poulter.
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Kansas State golfer Cooper Schultz follows through on a shot during the first round of the NCAA Bremerton Regional on Monday at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.
No. 2 seed Florida is comfortably in the team lead at 25-under, followed by top seed Arizona State in second at minus-16, South Carolina at 2-under and Colorado at 1-under.
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Senior Kobe Valociek turned in K-State’s best round of the day at 1-under 71, moving up 11 spots into 21st place. Ian McCrary, who shot even par on Monday, dropped to 35th overall with a second-round 76, while Nicklaus Mason is tied for 48th at 7-under after a 3-over 75 on Tuesday.
K-State will go head-to-head in a group with Colorado and Charlotte in the final round on Wednesday behind leaders Florida, Arizona State and South Carolina, which tees off first at 8 a.m. Pacific (10 a.m. central).
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on X (formerly Twitter) at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State men’s golf fifth after two rounds of NCAA regional
