RENO, Nev. — The Sam Houston men's golf team closed out a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Reno Regional on Wednesday, ending a weather-marred week at Montreux Golf & Country Club.
Sam Houston found itself in prime position to advance out of the regional round for the second time in program history after shooting nine under par as a team in the second round, surging the Bearkats into fifth place entering the final 18 holes of the week. But the last round was not as kind to the Kats as they shot +14 as a team, dropping into a tie with ETSU for ninth in the 14-team field.
The regional field was filled with eight nationally-ranked programs with four of those teams securing advancing positions to next week's NCAA Championship at La Costa. BYU, ranked No. 33 nationally, took the team title at -15 overall while No. 9 Virginia finished at -11 to take second.
No. 4 Texas (-9), Cal (+8) and No. 40 San Diego (+9) took the final three advancing spots.
Senior Bret Gray also made a run at advancing as an individual as the low-scoring player from a non-advancing team. He was -3 after 36 holes but struggled on his final 18, shooting a final-round 77 to finish at +2 and 20th overall for the week.
Heavy winds and snow plagued the early rounds, forcing the start of play until late Monday. The teams did not complete play until Tuesday morning with the Kats closing the first 18 holes in 10th place, 17 shots over par. Gray was the lone individual under par at -1, but with only the Alabama Crimson Tide under par as a team, things were far from done.
The second round was also forced to be called due to darkness on Tuesday evening, but following a frost delay on Wednesday, conditions led to much better scoring and the Kats took full advantage. They fired a team round at nine shots under par to get into fifth place entering the final round of play.
Sam Houston had four players shoot rounds under par on the second 18, including Josh German and Gene Chaikangwal firing rounds of 69. Gray surged into contention in the individual race by getting to -3 for the tournament after a second round of 70, which included three birdies. Hugo Trommetter scored six birdies of his own before ultimately finishing with a second round of 71.
But the final round started slow for the Kats and never really got going, dropping six shots as a team on the first three holes of the round to fall out of fifth place, while San Diego quickly took over the spot with a red-hot start of their own.
Alex Malanga turned in the best Round 3 for Kats, getting a pair of late birdies to fire a round of 73. Trommetter picked up three birdies of his own before finishing with a 75, ending up in 33rd place overall at six shots over par for the week.
German ended the week at +9 and in 40th after rounds of 79-69-77, while Chaikangwal finished 62nd at +15 after scores of 79-69-83.
The appearance was the program's fifth in an NCAA Regional and second-highest finish, only bettered by its fourth-place finish in the 2021 NCAA Stillwater Regional.
