SPRINGFIELD — The No. 15 Wittenberg men's golf team has been selected to compete in the 2024 NCAA Division III Championships, the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Committee announced late Monday afternoon.
The Tigers finished as the runner-up to Kenyon in the three-round North Coast Athletic Conference Championships tournament, which concluded Sunday, and were one of eight Pool C selections by the committee.
"It's a great feeling to receive an at-large bid into the national tournament. It's definitely a blessing we are grateful for," Wittenberg golf head coach David Wetterich said. "The team is looking to capitalize on our invitation, and we're setting our eyes on Boulder Creek."
The 2024 NCAA Division III Championships will be held May 14-17 at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nevada, and will be hosted by UNLV and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The team and individual champions will be determined after 72 holes of play or the conclusion of the last fully completed round.
A total of 43 teams and six individuals not on one of those teams have been selected to participate in the championships for a field of 221 competitors. After 36 holes of competition, the field will be cut to the top 18 teams and top six individuals not on one of those teams.
Thirty-four conferences were awarded an automatic qualification for the championships. One team was selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final eight berths were reserved for Pool C, which are institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B teams. The six individuals were selected from the remaining players who did not qualify with a team.
Wittenberg, the 2017 Division III national champion, is making its third straight appearance, and 29th overall, in the NCAA Championships. They finished seventh in 2022 at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, and 13th last year at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
This year's Tigers are led by senior J.F. Aber (Pittsburgh, Pa./Sewickley Academy) and juniors Jake Yarbrough (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) and Joshua Wright (Wadsowrth, Ohio/Akron Hoban), all of whom earned All-NCAC honors on Sunday.
Aber led the way as the NCAC Championships medalist and was selected as the conference's Player of the Year. He won by a margin of four strokes with a score of 5-under-par. His first-round 68 and second-round 66 marked the best in the 40-man field in each of those rounds, and his total of 205 marked a school-record score for three rounds, breaking the prior mark of 209 set by Colin Laszlo in 2017 and Cameron Willis in 2019. Aber is now a two-time NCAC Player of the Year (2023 and 2024) and four-time All-NCAC selection (First Team in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and Second Team in 2021).
Yarbrough earned All-NCAC First Team recognition this year after finishing in a tie for fourth at the conference championships. Wright tied for 13th and earned All-NCAC Third Team recognition.
Carnegie Mellon, a Pool C selection this year, is the defending NCAA Division III national champion. For more information about the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships, visit NCAA.com.