Despite their losses, the Wildcats have managed to head into the postseason ranked 25th in the nation by Golfweek and 26th by Golfstat. Even though the team struggled in a few tournaments, they were able to keep their season going due to a few key players..
Colby Dean
Colby Dean has had a great season so far for the Wildcats. He placed second in the 2017 Visit Stockton Cactus Thaw Regional Championship Preview and won the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational, the team’s last tournament of the semester before the postseason. He has been named the California Collegiate Athletic Association golfer of the week twice, and has taken on the role of the leader that the ’Cats were missing.
Dean is ranked 38th in the nation amongst Division II golfers, and has emerged as the leader of this young Wildcat team.
Chico State men’s golf will look to him to help guide the ’Cats to a deep postseason run.
Kelley Sullivan
Kelley Sullivan is a sophomore who is ranked 48th in the nation in division II. He started out the year strong, finishing in the top 10 of his first two tournaments and has kept up his play throughout the season. Sullivan finished 11th in the Battle of Eagle Glen March 21, but was not available to play in the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational. He will return in the CCAA postseason tournament for the Wildcats.
The men’s golf team has gone through it’s fair share of adversity with the loss of their longtime coach T.L. Brown at the beginning of the season.
This led to the hiring of Nick Green, who was already the coach of the Chico State women’s golf team.
Green has had to split time between both teams this season, which has resulted in the players having to be self-sufficient.
The ’Cats have done a great job of this, and are great standing heading into the postseason.
With the addition of senior Cole Chavez and sophomore Serge Kiriluk to round out the team, Green has a strong team going into the postseason tournament.
The Wildcats plan to get to the NCAA Championship tournament and thrive, just as they have in past seasons.
Patrick Pace can be reached at [email protected] or @patpacesports on Twitter.
