2022 NCAA DII Men's Golf Regional Qualifiers
For the third consecutive NCAA DII Tournament, the Hillsdale College men's golf team will be represented at the regional level.
Freshman Oscar Darlington was selected as one of eight individual qualifiers for the NCAA DII Central/Midwest Regional, taking place on May 5-7 at the Purgatory Golf Club in Noblesville, Indiana.
Darlington was selected on the back of a strong freshman year, where he played in 11 events with four top 10 finishes and two top five finishes, at the Kyle Ryman Memorial Invite in October 2021 and the Music City Invitational in April.
His most impressive performance was in the Kyle Ryman Memorial, where he shot a seven-under 209 that was just two strokes off the program record for 54 holes to finish runner-up individually. Darlington's excellent performance helped the Chargers to a runner-up finish as a team and a program record score for 54 holes of 858 in the event.
Darlington also took fourth individually at the Music City Invite, going six-under with a 70-68-138 for the 36-hole invitational in Tennessee.
He's the second golfer to qualify to compete individually in the NCAA Tournament for the Chargers, joining Joel Pietila, who holds the Chargers' 54-hole record and made the NCAA DII Central/Midwest Regional as a sophomore in 2017. Hillsdale also has qualified twice for the NCAAs as a team, in 2019 and 2021.
Darlington is one of three teams and three individuals from the G-MAC competing in the Central/Midwest Regional, which includes 20 teams and eight individuals from across the two regions. Findlay, G-MAC champion Tiffin and Trevecca Nazarene all qualified as teams for the NCAA Tournament, as well as individuals from Ohio Dominican and Malone.
At a minimum, the top three teams and the top two student-athletes not with a team from each regional will advance to the NCAA Division II Championships on May 16-20 at TPC Michigan in Detroit, Michigan. The remaining eight team berths will be allocated based on the regions represented in the prior year's head-to-head medal play portion of the championships, with the maximum number of teams from a given region capped at seven. The finals will be hosted by Wayne State (Michigan) and the Detroit Sports Commission.
Darlington will be competing for one of those two slots, as well as valuable experience for later on in his career at Hillsdale, with three more years of eligibility to compete remaining after this spring ends.
Photo Courtesy of Findlay Athletics