Virginia dials up NCAA berth

Bowen Sargent will tell you quickly that the greatest invention of late was the iPhone.

Thanks to the handheld gadget, the Virginia men’s golf coach was able to monitor history being made May 17.

Periodic checks of the live scoring during the final round of the NCAA east regional in Chattanooga, Tenn., told Sargent that his team was making a dramatic charge for an unexpected berth in the NCAA championships.

Sargent can thank rookie golfer Kyle Stough for loaning the phone and creating massive butterflies for the coach during the back nine.

“He gave me his phone, so I was updated instantaneously,” the coach chuckled. “They update the scores there after every hole, so I was pretty much on top of the event as it was unfolding.

“The way it kind of unfolded, it came down to our team and N.C. State. It was evident that one of the two of us were going to make it and it basically came down to who was going to play the last four holes the best.”

Virginia accomplished that and will reap the reward today — the Cavaliers open play as one of 30 teams at the championships, which are being held at Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind. The Cavaliers enter as the event’s 30th seed.

UVa opened the final round of the regional in 16th place, six spots away from earning an automatic bid.

“That was my biggest concern. It wasn’t so much that we were nine strokes back, but we had six teams in front of us and six pretty good teams,” Sargent said. “It is not like you are talking about some average teams there. It was amazing and every time the guys needed to step up, they executed.

“It was amazing really. It was so fun to watch.”

It was not a one-sided resurgence. Freshman Will Collins fired a team-best 67 and sophomores Stough and Steven Rojas finished at 69, two strokes under par. Senior Greg Carlin completed the balanced foursome with a 71.

“That was the incredible part,” the coach said. “Golf is such a fickled game anyway and it is hard enough to get one person to play well, and to get five people to play well on the same, especially given that situation, it was just truly amazing.”

Sargent knows the impact that qualifying and being able to compete over the next three days will have on his youthful squad.

“These guys are young and they are going to get a good taste, a lot of experience of what it is like to go through a good regional and actually accomplish your goals by advancing,” he said. “It is pretty rare for a team as young as this team is to achieve that.”

The Cavaliers will also give the school a timely boost in the Sports Academy Directors’ Cup. As of May 1, Virginia stood in 26th place overall, a figure did not include several outstanding performances in spring sports.

“Someone told me that,” Sargent said. “[Media Relations Director Jim Daves] told me that was going to be a nice gain in the cup standings.

“That is nice; we always like to do our part for the University of Virginia.”

The championship meet has a local flavor that extends outside of Virginia’s players. Will Strickler, a Woodberry Forest graduate and Charlottesville resident, is competing for Florida, and Monticello High product Dustin Groves helped Wake Forest earn the third seed with a fourth-place finish individually at the NCAA Central Regional.