UD Men's Golf Seeks Repeat at SCAC Championships
BLANCO, Texas - The University of Dallas men's golf team will compete in the South Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship on Monday and Tuesday, April 19 and 20. The Crusaders are the still reigning SCAC champions and retain all five golfers from the 2019 championship team. The three teams who will be challenging UD's title this tournament are the perennially strong and usually ranked Pirates of Southwestern University, the always tough to deal with Bulldogs of Texas Lutheran University and the surging Tigers of Trinity University.
Coming into the tournament, the Crusaders finished second as a team in the Rhodes Collegiate Spring Classic. Emilio Montalvo (Mexico City, Mexico) also finished second individually at Rhodes.
Southwestern recently fell out of the Top 25, but also won their last tournament the West Region Invitational. Southwestern's Austin Kelley and Colin O'Hern to the top two individual spots for the tournament.
Texas Lutheran has played well all season, ending the regular season with two second place finishes and two fourth place finishes. The two second place finishes came in their last two tournaments at the SCAC Conference Preview and the West Region Invitational.
Trinity this season reached the #10 ranked team in the nation according to the National Coaches' Poll on March 26. Trinity won the SCAC Conference Preview and sophomore Daniel Nunez was the tournament medalist with a score of 141.
Of the five Crusaders who played in the 2019 SCAC Championship, four out of the five have been awarded All-Conference honors at least once. Erik Hamm (Brentwood, Tenn) and Jacob Wade (Magnolia, Texas) have been All-SCAC twice with a 1st Team and a 2nd Team each. Robby Evans (Flower Mound, Texas) was awarded 2nd Team All-SCAC in 2018, and Montalvo was 1st Team All-SCAC in 2019. While Seth McNeil (Plano, Texas) has not yet won an All-Conference award, he played a large part in the 2019 Championship as UD's fourth counted score in two out of the three rounds.
The tournament will be held at Vaaler Creek Golf Club in Blanco, Texas with the first tee times of the tournament early in the morning on Monday. Keep up with the Crusaders men's golf team on their Instagram page (udallasmgolf)
Worth Noting:
Leading up to the tournament in 2019, Dallas finished in second place at the Rhodes Classic right before the SCAC Championship. Montalvo also scored under 215 and placed in the top five in both tournaments.
Southwestern and TLU both competed in the West Region Invitational right before the Championship in 2019, with Southwestern taking first and TLU second in both tournaments. Additionally, golfers from Southwestern and TLU took the top three individual spots for both tournaments.
Finally, both the 2019 tournament and the 2021 tournament will be played at Vaaler Creek in Blanco, Texas.