Kansas State golf team earns high seed at NCAA Regional. Is trip to nationals next?
Kansas State men’s golf coach Grant Robbins and his team of seven student-athletes didn’t spend much time celebrating when they learned the Wildcats had earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Wednesday afternoon.
The applause at their watch party lasted a grand total of five seconds.
There was a reason for that. At this time last year, the reaction was much different in Manhattan. When the Wildcats qualified for an NCAA Regional for the first time under Robbins they wildly celebrated the achievement and what it meant for the team. This time around, they have bigger goals in mind.
Mainly, they are focused on advancing to the national finals for the first time in school history.
“This year it’s all about where we’re going and what it is going to take to advance,” Robbins said. “It’s a totally different mindset.”
After spending much of the season ranked in the top 25 and then earning a No. 5 seed in the Bath (Michigan) Regional, expectations are understandably higher than they have been in recent memory. K-State will compete at Eagle Eye Golf Club from May 15-17 against a field of 13 teams.
The top five teams at every regional advance to the national finals in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Wildcats missed out on a trip there last year when they showed nerves in the regional round. They want things to be different this time.
“It’s something we have had circled from the beginning of the year,” senior Will Hopkins said. “It’s something that we want to do for the school and for one another. With this being my last go-around, it’s definitely something that is motivating me to do that (for) my teammates and the K-State name.”
K-State will compete against top seed Illinois, as well as Florida, Texas, Oregon, Georgia, Liberty, San Diego, Little Rock, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Illinois State and Purdue-Fort Wayne in its regional.
Finishing in the top five won’t be easy. But neither was building up a program that rarely made the NCAA Tournament into a team that could make it here in back-to-back seasons.
The Wildcats are ready to take the next step. It’s all business for them now.
“We’ve been talking about this since the beginning of our fall semester, doing something like no one has ever done before with this program,” senior Tim Tillmanns said. “It would be really special.”
K-State wasn’t the only local golf team that earned a spot in an NCAA Regional on Wednesday.
The Kansas Jayhawks will be a No. 10 seed at the Norman Regional in Oklahoma. And the Missouri Tigers will be a No. 7 seed in the Morgan Hill Regional in California.
Kansas City also made it as a No. 13 seed in the Las Vegas Region as the champion of the Summitt League.
