Cyclones Earn NCAA Regional Berth

AMES, Iowa – The No. 50 Iowa State men's golf team returns to NCAA postseason play for the fourth time in the last six seasons. The Cyclones earned the No. 9 seed in the NCAA Austin Regional on May 15-17, announced this morning on the Golf Channel

The NCAA Austin Regional will be hosted by the University of Texas at the UT Golf Club in Austin, Texas. The top five teams in the six regionals will qualify for the NCAA Championships, May 26-31 in Sugar Grove, Ill. Iowa State qualified for the NCAA finals in 2014.

The Cyclones have had a team or individual qualify for the NCAA Regionals in each of the last six seasons. Scott Fernandez (2013) and Nick Voke (2016) were recent NCAA individual qualifiers. This marks the 10^th NCAA Regional team appearance in Cyclone history: 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017.

Iowa State head men's golf coach Andrew Tank, now in his seventh season as the Cyclone leader, has led the Cyclones to one of their greatest seasons. ISU has won three tournament titles, the most since the 1996-97 season, and finished runner-up twice.

"Certainly this (making NCAA Regionals) has been a goal of ours all year long," Tank said. "It's very rewarding quite honestly. It's also a relief because of all the work you do during the season getting into position to get that bid. So it's nice to know that step is taken care of, but I really think that our guys have been thinking bigger. Getting back to the National Championship like we did in 2014 is something they are striving for."

The Cyclones are one of eight Big 12 teams to advance to NCAA postseason play.

The Cyclones are led by their two seniors – Nick Voke and Ruben Sondjaja. Voke, who is ranked No. 79 nationally by Golfweek, leads the team in stroke average (71.50) this season and has a career 71.96 scoring mark, the best in school history.

The Auckland, New Zealand native has won three career tournament titles and finished in the top-10 17 times, ranking third in school history.

Sondjaja, a native of Sydney, Australia, has missed just one tournament in his four seasons as a Cyclone. He currently ranks second on the team in stroke average (72.00) and top-10 finishes (3).

Ranked No. 152 nationally by Golfweek, Sondjaja owns the third-best career stroke average in school history (72.81) and has 11 top-10 placings in his career.

Junior Denzel Ieremia, who hails from Hamilton, New Zealand, gives ISU a potent trio at the top of the order. Ieremia has emerged as one of the team's top players with a 72.66 stroke average. Ieremia claimed the first tournament title of his career by winning medalist honors at the Pinetree Invitational. His four top-10 finishes leads the team.

2017 NCAA Austin Regional Participants- in order by seed
Oklahoma State, Wake Forest, Texas, Mississippi, Arizona State, N.C. State, Kansas, Liberty, Iowa State, Georgia Southern, Charleston, McNeese State, Wichita State, St. Peters