ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul's men's golf team is set to defend their 2022 conference championship crown this weekend at the NSIC Championships in Blue Springs, Missouri. The tournament, held at the Adams Pointe Golf CLub, will span three rounds starting on Friday, April 21 and conclude on Sunday April 23. The Golden Bears took the victory last season with a three-round team score of 882 (+18).
The NSIC Championships will feature all ten men's golf teams in the conference with the winner gaining an automatic bid to the NCAA Central/Midwest Super Regional. The super regional will be played on May 11-13 at The Bridges Golf Course in Winona, Minnesota; hosted by Winona State University. Last season the Bears moved on to the super regional in 2022 in Noblesville, Indiana, placing 18th as a team.
The CSP men rank first in the conference standings heading into the NSIC Championship with a round average of 296.8 through 20 rounds. Bemidji State (297.0), Winona State (297.2), and Minnesota State (298.2) will be the Golden Bears main threats in the tournament. Bemidji State holds the best winning percentage against the other top three teams at common events season at .632. Winona State is second at .600, Concordia follows in third with a .529 winning percentage, and Minnesota State is last against the teams atop the conference at .263.
Individually, Brandon Sperling holds the top spot in the conference with an average round score of 72.6. The sophomore's mark is currently best all-time in Concordia history in front of Noah Razinski average of 73.1 from 2017-18 and Taylor Zach's 73.5 from the 2018-19 season.
Thomas Huettl enters the tournament as the defending champion having won the 2021-22 NSIC Championship by a convincing seven strokes last season. Huettl is currently ninth in the conference with an average round score of 74.7, which ranks sixth all-time in Concordia history.
Kurt Lambert also cracked the top-10 in the conference (10th) and CSP all-time rankings (Eighth) with an average of 74.9 through 20 rounds in 2022-23.
LAST TIME OUT
Concordia-St. Paul men's golf finished tied for eighth among 19 total teams and tied for third among seven Northern Sun programs at The Mule Invitational. Concordia, sitting in eleventh after two rounds (290-289), turned in a 295 on the final day to move up three spots with a 874 (+34) team score.
Brandon Sperling shot a 72 (+2) on the final day to finish tied for 11th overall out of 100 golfers with a 214 final score. The junior was stellar on par-5's in the tournament, tying for the second best par-5 scoring average at 4.58 (-5). Sperling was also one of just six golfers with an eagle.
Kurt Lambert finished two strokes behind Sperling and was the most consistent CSP golfer in Missouri, carding a 72 (+2) in all three rounds to finish with a career best 216 strokes (+6) and tied for 15th.
Hunter Robinson finished third on the team and tied for 50th overall at 225 (+15).
Thomas Huettl shot a 77 in the third round to finish on stroke behind at 226 (+16), tying for 57th. Ben Rasinski improved in every round and shot a 74 (+4) on Tuesday to close things out tied for 79th with 230 strokes (+20).
