Colorado Christian University men on track to return to NCAA Div. II national title match, but semifinals will wrap up Friday morning; Buffs riding high as they begin NCAA DI final exam on Friday
By Gary Baines – 5/22/2025
It’s not official yet, but it looks likely that the Colorado Christian University men’s golf team will be playing for a second straight NCAA Division II national team title on Friday.
The Lakewood-based Cougars won their quarterfinal match on Thursday morning, defeating Oklahoma Christian 3.5-1.5 at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Springs, Fla., and were well on their way to a semifinal victory Thursday night.
But a lightning delay in the afternoon kept three of the five medal-match play matchups between CCU and North Georgia from concluding before darkness stopped play with Colorado Christian ahead 4-1.
CCU’s Xavier Bighaus won his match 71-72 after trailing by four strokes at the turn, and fellow senior Adam Duncan prevailed 72-74. But the other three matches will need to conclude early Friday morning. Colorado Christian sophomore Sungyeop Cho stands 5 strokes ahead with two holes remaining and CCU teammate Sangha Park leads by three strokes with three holes left. Colorado Christian junior Peyton Jones trails by six strokes with two holes remaining.
Should, as expected, CCU go on to win early Friday, the Cougars will face West Florida in Friday’s title match. WF defeated Wingate 3.5-1.5 in the semifinals.
Colorado Christian is looking to beat North Georgia in match play at nationals for the second straight year. Last year, CCU defeated NG 3-2 in the championship match to become the first Colorado-based golf program — regardless of gender or classification — to win an NCAA national team title.
With their victories before darkness fell, Bighaus and Duncan went 2-0 individually on Friday. Both Bighaus and Duncan — along with Park — trailed in the early going against North Georgia before turning the match in their favor.
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 team competition.
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. CCU earned the top seed in match play by finishing first in the stroke-play portion of the championship.
For all the results from the men’s DII nationals, CLICK HERE.
CU Men Gear Up for Final Exam: Looking back on the University of Colorado’s two-decade-plus drought in failing to reach the NCAA Division I men’s national championship finals as a team, nowadays you couldn’t blame several current CU players if they might wonder why it seemed so difficult.
After the Buffs hadn’t taken a full team to nationals since 2002, this current squad is set to tee it up at the event for the second time in three years. When the 30-team DI national championships begin on Friday in Carlsbad, Calif., it’s expected that junior Hunter Swanson of Superior, and senior mainstays Justin Biwer and Dylan McDermott will compete at nationals for the second time in their career. And if senior Jack Holland is subbed into the lineup at some point, he’d also become a two-timer. To put that into perspective, the only other CU player in the last 30 years to compete at least twice in NCAA nationals was Matt Zions, who played in the event in 1999 and 2002.
In recent weeks, Swanson has been on a roll with his game. He led the Buffs by placing seventh individually at NCAA regionals, then won the CGA Four-Ball with former CU teammate Wes Erling, and claimed medalist honors in a U.S. Open local qualifying tournament.
This time, the Buffs come into nationals ranked No. 29 in the nation and are seeded 22nd out of the 30 teams (some of the higher-ranked teams failed to advance from NCAA regionals to nationals). CU’s top finish ever at nationals was eighth place in 1968, with the 14th-place showing in 2002 the Buffs’ best since the end of the Steve Jones era in 1981.
This season has been one of the best in program history — certainly in terms of consistency. The Buffs have chalked up one team victory, six second places and two thirds.
At the North Course at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, nationals will see 30 teams and six individuals play stroke-play rounds Friday, Saturday and Sunday, after which the field will be cut to the top 15 schools, along with the top nine individuals not on an advancing team. The individual champion will be determined after Monday’s fourth round, and the top eight teams after 72 holes will advance to the medal-match play quarterfinals.
For results from the men’s NCAA DI tournament, 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