The Golden Lions' first appearance in the NCAA men's golf regional tournament was quite the challenge.
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff shot 18-over par during Wednesday's final round at Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Okla., and finished last out of 14 teams at 62-over for the tournament. The Southwestern Athletic Conference champion was 52 strokes behind the 13th-place team, Louisiana-Lafayette, which shot 1-under for the round.
UAPB shot 25-over for the first round and saw some improvement in the second round with a 19-over performance. Jaime Moliner had the low round for the team, shooting 2-under with no bogeys on the back nine to finish at 1-over 73.
SWAC medalist Patrick Mwendapole rebounded from back-to-back 10-over rounds to shoot just 3-over Wednesday, making five birdies including one on the par-5 18th. Ismael Garcia wound up 4-over, Angel Perez shot 10-over and Li Su went 12-over in the round.
UAPB's three-round total was 926 (313-307-306), with the top four scores on each team counting toward standings. Moliner, the Golden Lions' No. 5 golfer, finished the highest in the tournament tied for 61st at 225 (77-75-73), while Garcia was 66th at 228 (77-75-76), Su 69th at 238 (77-77-84), Mwendapole tied for 70th at 239 (82-82-75) and Perez 72nd at 247 (85-80-82).
Alabama won the team title at 28-under 836, followed by Oklahoma at 25-under, Colorado at 23-under, Texas Tech at 22-under and Duke at 21-under. Those teams advance to the NCAA finals in Scottsdale, Ariz., later this month.
Sixth- through 12th-place teams were North Florida at 20-under, Wake Forest at 10-under, Louisiana State at 9-under, Kansas at 6-under, Ole Miss at 5-under, North Carolina-Wilmington at 1-under and Princeton at 5-over.
Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech won the regional medal with a 14-under 202, one stroke ahead of runner-up Drew Goodman of Oklahoma and four better than Ben Lorenz of Oklahoma. Will King of Kansas beat Hugo Townsend of Ole Miss to win the individual qualifying spot for players from non-advancing teams.