SAN ANTONIO — The No. 44-ranked UTSA men's golf team is set to play in the Conference USA Championship on Monday-Thursday, April 26-29, at Texarkana Country Club (par 72/6,969 yards).
The C-USA Championship is being held for the first time in two years after the 2020 championship was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Roadrunners are the third-highest ranked team in the field in the latest Golfstat rankings and they will compete against No. 33 Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion, Rice, Southern Miss, No. 38 UAB, UTEP and WKU.
The 13-team field will play 54 holes of stroke play with each of the three rounds teeing off at 8 a.m. on Monday through Wednesday. The top four teams in the standings will advance to the match play semifinals at 8 a.m. Thursday with the two advancing squads facing off for the conference championship that afternoon.
UTSA has been ranked as high as No. 26 in the nation this season and has appeared in the Golfstat top 50 for seven straight weeks. The Roadrunners own three top-six finishes in 2021, including a runner-up showing at the Trinity Forest Invitational on March 7-9 in Dallas. UTSA placed fifth at the Bayou City Collegiate Classic earlier this month and finished ahead of five nationally ranked teams — including then-top-ranked Arizona — in an eighth-place performance at the Cabo Collegiate at TPC San Antonio in March.
The Roadrunners will roll with a lineup of Michael Rome, Chad Sewell, Christian Fanfelle, Hunter Bott and Collin Clark with Adam House as the alternate.
Sewell leads that group with a 73.07 stroke average to go along with three top-20 finishes this year. The senior from Conroe, Texas, was tabbed C-USA Golfer of the Week on March 14 after tying for seventh with a 214 (73-70-71) at the Trinity Forest Invitational.
Fanfelle, a third-team all-conference performer a year ago, ranks second on the squad with a 73.53 scoring average and he boasts four top-25 finishes, including a tie for 13th (77-69-71—217) at the Cabo Collegiate.
Rome, who totes a 75.0 stroke average this season, earned all-tournament accolades at this event two years ago after placing fifth with a 2-under 214 (75-70-69).
The Roadrunners nearly captured the program's first conference title at the 2019 tournament. After earning the No. 1 seed for the four-team match play with an even-par 864 during 54 holes of stroke play, UTSA rallied for a 3-2 win over UAB in the semifinal round. In the championship match against Middle Tennessee, the Blue Raiders needed six extra holes to narrowly defeat the Roadrunners, 3-2.
In its conference tournament history — which dates back to the 1987 Trans America Athletic Conference (now Atlantic Sun) Tournament — UTSA has placed in the top five 17 times, including five runner-up finishes, the last of which came in 2019.
Two Roadrunners have claimed individual league titles. Magnus Dohlvik recorded a 70-72-77—219 in 1997 to win the Southland crown, while John Elizondo was the Southland's medalist in 2006 after carding a 67-71-75—213.
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