Defending national champ Colorado Christian men advance to quarterfinals of NCAA Division II tourney as they finish atop stroke-play standings; CCU’s Sangha Park ties for 2nd in individual competition
By Gary Baines – 5/21/2025
For just the fourth time in history, a men’s golf team from Colorado has advanced to the quarterfinals of medal-match play in the NCAA Division II national championships.
Still, Lakewood-based Colorado Christian University has bigger things in mind — like winning a second straight DII national team title.
But the first step was making medal-match play, which required a top-8 finish out of the DII stroke-play field of 20 schools. CCU did that with ease by finishing first in the stroke-play portion of the event on Wednesday at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Springs, Fla.
The Cougars finished at 8 under par as a team through 54 holes, overtaking Missouri University of Science and Technology, the 18th-ranked team in DII, down the stretch. As the top seed, CCU will face eighth-seeded Oklahoma Christian, which is ranked No. 7 in DII, in Thursday morning’s national quarterfinals. The winners will play in the semifinals on Thursday afternoon, with the title match set for Friday morning.
CCU finished two shots ahead of second-place West Florida in stroke play.
Previous Colorado-based men’s DII teams to make the national quarterfinals are CCU last year, CSU Pueblo in 2022 and Fort Lewis in 2011.
In medal-match play, individual golfers compete head to head in a match, but on a cumulative-stroke-play basis. Whichever player finishes the round in fewer strokes wins his individual match. There’s five individual matches for each quarterfinal.
CCU has racked up 10 team victories in 11 tournaments this season, with the lone exception being the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate, where the Cougars finished second in a field comprised almost entirely of Division I teams.
Colorado Christian came into nationals owning a 130-0 record this season against Division II opponents.
Meanwhile, an individual DII national champion was crowned on Wednesday as Hunter Smith of North Georgia claimed the title. CCU put two players in the top 11 — graduate student Sangha Park (tied for second place, one back of Smith) and senior Adam Duncan, the top-ranked individual in DII (11th). Park went 74-70-67, though a double bogey on 16 Wednesday proved crucial to his individual title hopes. Duncan carded scores of 71-71-72.
Not far behind were CCU junior Peyton Jones, who closed with an eagle for 23rd place, and sophomore teammate Sungyeop Cho (26th). CSU Pueblo junior Agustin Pizzorno, competing only individually, placed 52nd.
Last week, CCU head coach Mark Hull was named one of five finalists for the DII Dave Williams Coach of the Year award.
Going back to the end of last season, Hull’s Cougars have claimed team titles in 14 of their last 17 tournaments. When they won the national championship last year, it marked the first NCAA national team golf title for a Colorado-based team — regardless of gender or division level.
For all the scores from the men’s DII nationals, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com