FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 1 Nova Southeastern University men's golf team tees off on Monday morning as part of the 20-team field at the NCAA South/Southeast Super Regional, hosted by Saint Leo at the par-72, 7,119-yard Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club in Dade City, Florida.
The 54-hole tournament will be Monday-Wednesday in Dade City, with the top six teams moving on to the DII National Championships in Conover, North Carolina. Each of the four regional tournaments produces at least three bids, but based on last year's medal/match play, the South/Southeast has been awarded six postseason nods.
The 20 teams competing at Lake Jovita are seeded 10 per region, with the Sharks selected as the top team in the South. They are one of six Sunshine State Conference teams among those 10, along with nationally-ranked No. 3 Lynn, No. 4 Barry, No. 10 Saint Leo, No. 12 Florida Southern and No. 21 Florida Tech. The remainder of the South is made up of No. 7 West Georgia, No. 14 West Florida, No. 18 North Alabama and unranked Benedict.
Ranked teams chosen from the Southeast are No. 2 South Carolina Aiken, No. 6 Flagler, No. 15 Wingate, No. 16 Georgia Southwestern, No. 17 Columbus State, No. 22 Erskine, No. 24 Limestone and No. 25 North Greenville. Unranked Georgia College and Tusculum round out the field.
In 10 tournaments thus far the season, the No. 1 Sharks won five and placed as runners-up in four of the remaining five, including at the most recent SSC Championships.
Here is the Sharks' lineup in order of Monday tee time for the three-day tournament:
Oscar Lengdèn (Sr., Helsingborg, Sweden) – 7:30 a.m.Lengdèn is the Sharks' lone senior participating in Dade City, and has a stroke average this season of 73.24, 59th-best in DII. He is also ranked No. 27 in the country head-to-head, with a best event finish this year a tie for third at the St. Edward's Invitational. This will be his third NCAA Tournament appearance.
Priyanshu Singh (Fr., Delhi, India) – 7:40 a.m.Singh
will also see his first NCAA action, and is the 32nd-ranked golfer in DII (and fifth-highest freshman), while posting a 72.67 stroke average, third on the team. He had four top-10 individual finishes, including a stretch of three in a row, and was runner-up at Georgia College's Bobcat Invitational in mid-March.
Ethan Marcus (Fr., Boca Raton, Fla.) – 7:50 a.m.Marcus is one of three Sharks making their NCAA Tournament debut, bringing with him an per-round average of 73.26, 61st lowest in the nation. Four times, he was among the top-10 best region golfers in an event, and placed fifth overall in the fall season finale, Rollins' McDonough Cup. He is the eighth-highest rated freshman in DII and slots 56th overall. Richard Mansell (So., Staffordshire, England) – 8 a.m.Mansell's first season with the squad has been nothing short of spectacular, as he is second on the team and in the nation – as well as DII's No. 2-ranked golfer – in scoring at 71.33. He earned First Team All-SSC status and two regulation first-place finishes, at the Otter Invitational (against 96 other golfers) and the St. Edward's Invitational. He leads all DII golfers with 107 birdies on the year.Santiago Gomez (Jr., Armenia, Colombia) – 8:10 a.m.Gomez, the SSC Men's Golfer of the Year, has had a historic season, as the No. 1-ranked golfer in all of Division II, with a scoring average that actually comes in under par at 70.68 (35th lowest in the country no matter what NCAA/NAIA level). He has notched a fifth-place or better showing in each of his nine tournaments this year, including a runner-up finish at NSU's Guy Harvey Invitational, in a field of 96. Live scoring from Dade City will be posted hole-by-hole
HERE. Updates throughout the event can be found on Twitter @
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NSUSharksGolf.