Michigan College Teams Heading to NCAA Regionals
U-M’s Monet Chun wins Big Ten for second time, earns Player of the Year
Michigan State to host the women’s Regional in East Lansing
By Tom Lang
Michigan, Michigan State and Oakland University women’s golf teams qualified for the NCAA Regionals, May 6-8.
Oakland and MSU will be at Forest Akers on the MSU campus, and the Wolverines head to Auburn, Ala. as the No. 6 seed.
As a team, Michigan placed T4 at the Big Ten Championships in late April, with senior Monet Chun leading the way as medalist, by winning a playoff used for determining their NCAA placements. With a 209 (7-under) championship total, Chun (73-66-70) won the second conference crown of her career – the first came as a sophomore – sharing the top spot with Minnesota's Isabella McCauley (74-71-64) and Indiana's Caroline Craig (69-69-71) before the playoff.
In the second round of the Big Ten Championship, Chun made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole (162 yards, 5-iron). The day before, her teammate Mara Janess also made a hole-in-one.
Chun later was named winner of the Mary Fossum Award for lowest average score, and she was selected conference Golfer of the Year. Her career-low average of 71.48 per round is on pace to set a new program record.
At Forest Akers: Michigan State goes into the women’s Regional with redemption on its mind. The Spartans were cruising at the Big Tens with an 11-stroke lead starting the final round, before Indiana clipped MSU by one stroke for the title.
This year, MSU is the Regional’s No. 5 seed, and Oakland (coached by former Spartan Sarah Burnham) is No. 12. USC, Northwestern, Florida and Pepperdine come to Forest Akers as the top seeds ahead of the Spartans. Indiana (No. 9) will also be there.
In 2023, MSU went into the NCAA regionals as a mid-level seed but ended up winning the Regional title, it’s first in program history – while then-sophomore Brooke Biermann shared medalist honors with Latanna Stone of LSU. The Spartans finished 3 strokes ahead of runner up Duke, with Northwestern and Texas tying for third. MSU hopes for the same result in 2024 of not winning the conference championship but showing up strong at the Regional. Hosting at the home course will be a great aid in that goal. Fans can attend for free (May 6-8). More info here.
MSU Men Earn Invitation to Chapel Hill Regional
Michigan State’s men’s golf team has earned the Great Lake State’s only team invitation to the Men’s NCAA Regionals. They will play May 13-15 in North Carolina, as the No. 11 seed.
Northwestern, which won the Big Ten Championship leading wire-to-wire, is the No. 5 seed.
MSU Coach Casey Lubahn didn’t hold much hope for the Spartans in late February.
“After one of the worst semesters of my life, we had one of the best,” he said the day before the Reginal qualifiers were announce. “We woke up. These guys just started a run. It’s just fantastic. Giving our seniors one more chance is pretty special.”
Lubahn pointed out that the team’s 4th place finish at the Big Tens was their sixth consecutive Top 5 finish. MSU’s last half-dozen tournaments resulted in: 5th, 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd and 4th.
The golf schedule will be greatly impacted if MSU earns a qualifying spot at the finals, to be held in California, May 24-29. First, he personally would have to withdraw from the USGA Four-Ball tournament where he qualified with teammate and former Spartan Jimmy Chestnut. Second, junior Ashton McCulloch would likely withdraw from the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open that same week. He won the 2023 Canadian Amateur to get the invite, but Lubahn said McCulloch would give that up for the team.
“If the team was there (at NCAA Finals), he would skip the Canadian Open,” Lubahn told me. “I believe him and his family wouldn’t even think twice about that. For a guy who grew up in northeast Canada, he’s very much a Spartan. He one of us.”
Michigan’s Hunter Thomson will represent U-M as an individual at the West Lafayette Regional.
