Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Golf headed to Louisville for NCAA Regionals
05/01/2019 | 9:38:00 | Men's Golf
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois men's golf team was assigned to the Louisville Regional on Wednesday night, as the school prepares to compete in the NCAA Division I Championship tournament for just the second time in school history.
While the Salukis were excited to see their name pop up on the screen during a Selection Show Watch Party with friends, family and supporters, they weren't thrilled with the selection committee's decision to assign SIU a No. 13 seed. There are 13 teams at each of the six regional sites, meaning Southern is the lowest seeded team in its region. The top five teams from each Regional, which takes place May 13-15, advance to the Championship, May 24-29.
"I saw a 13 seed and I felt a little disrespected," admitted SIU senior Peyton Wilhoit, the team's leader in stroke average and a four-time All-Conference pick. "I remember when colleges were telling me I wasn't good enough, and now here it feels like the NCAA is saying, hey, you're still the bottom of the pack. I guess it's time to go show them that I have a little different feeling about our abilities."
Fellow senior Luke Gannon agreed with Wilhoit's assessment, though he said everyone on the team is thrilled with the opportunity to play in the NCAA Regionals.
"(The seed) is a little bit disrespectful, but it gives us a bit of a chip on our shoulders," Gannon said. "When we won the MVC my freshman year, no one thought we should even show up because they all thought Wichita State was going to win. Same with Illinois State this year. That's why rankings are rankings, but you have to play to see how it all pans out."
Illinois State was a unanimous pre-tournament favorite to win the 2019 MVC Championship, but Southern played a phenomenal final round and won the tournament by 10 strokes to secure the league's automatic NCAA bid.
"Everybody goes and starts at ground zero in the Regionals," said head coach Justin Fetcho, who also guided the team to the NCAA's in 2016. "It's 54 holes of golf and the five lowest teams are going to go (to the NCAA Championship). We've been in this position before as the underdog when people haven't believed in us, and I think we have to try to rally the troops again just like a conference championship."
Senior Hunter York, who carded five birdies on the back nine during the final round of the MVC Championship, was elated for the chance to play postseason golf so close to home.
"Louisville's where all the guys wanted to go," he said. "It's convenient, close, easy travel. SIU supporters and families can be there. I think coming off our strong finish at the MVCs we can carry that momentum into the Regionals. We 100 percent feel we're deserving of a better seed, but it doesn't matter what people think. Obviously, it didn't matter what they thought going into the MVC and it's not going to change anything going into the Regionals."
Louisville Regional
1 Oklahoma State [Big 12 Conference]
2 Auburn
3 North Florida [ASUN Conference]
4 Louisville
5 Baylor
6 Arkansas State [Sun Belt Conference]
7 Iowa State
8 West Virginia
9 Arizona
10 Mississippi State
11 New Mexico [Mountain West Conference]
12 Jacksonville State [Ohio Valley Conference]
13 Southern Illinois [Missouri Valley Conference]
