INDIANAPOLIS — Senior Andrew Bennett (Bossier City, La.) has been selected as an individual in the 2024 NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships May 14-17 at Boulder Creek Golf Club, in Boulder City, Nevada.
Bennett, who claimed the individual title at last month's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships in Whitney, Texas, is one of six individuals selected to participate in the championships. Bennett is the first Centenary men's golfer to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the division III era (2013-present).
The championships will be hosted by UNLV and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The team and individual champions will be determined after 72 holes of play or the conclusion of the last fully completed round. Forty-three teams and six individuals not on one of those teams will be selected to participate in the championships. After 36 holes of competition, the field will be cut to the top 18 teams and top six individuals not on one of those teams.
A total of 221 participants will compete at the 2024 championships. Thirty-four conferences were awarded an automatic qualification for the championships. One team was selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final eight berths were reserved for Pool C, which are institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B teams. The six individuals are selected from the remaining players who have not qualified with a team.
Bennett finished nine shots ahead of Jacob Mason of Trinity University (+5 – 221) at the conference championships as he claimed his second-career victory after he won the individual title at the UMHB Men's Invitational this past Fall. He earned First-Team All-SCAC honors last month.
Bennett entered the final round in third place and one shot behind 36-hole leader Jacob Mason of Trinity University. He fired identical 1-under par 71 rounds in rounds one and two at the par-72, 6,918-yard course. He posted under par scores (71, 71 and 70) in each of his three rounds, becoming just the third player in conference championship history to do so, and his three-day total of 212 is tied for the third-lowest finishing score in conference history.
Bennett, who tied for 19th at the conference championships in 2022, now has two individual wins, three top-five finishes, and a top-15 finish this season. Centenary's previous best individual finish in the championships was Richard Polan in 2022 as he finished third in Blanco, Texas.
Listed below are the teams and individuals selected for the 2024 championships:
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Conferences Receiving Automatic Qualification Berths (34) Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference – Penn State-Altoona |
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American Rivers Conference – Luther |
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American Southwest Conference – LeTourneau |
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Atlantic East – Marymount (Virginia) |
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Centennial Conference – Franklin & Marshall |
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College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin – Illinois Wesleyan |
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Commonwealth Coast Conference – Roger Williams |
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Empire 8 – St. John Fisher |
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Great Northeast Athletic Conference – New England College |
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Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference – Rose-Hulman |
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Landmark Conference –Scranton |
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Liberty League – Rochester (New York) |
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Little East – Eastern Connecticut State |
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Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference – Springfield |
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Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association - Hope |
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Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth – York (Pennsylvania) |
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Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom – Stevens Institute of Technology |
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Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Bethel (Minnesota) |
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New England Small College Athletic Conference – Tufts |
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North Atlantic Conference - Husson |
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North Coast Athletic Conference - Kenyon |
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Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference - Aurora |
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Northwest Conference - Whitman |
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Ohio Athletic Conference - Otterbein |
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Old Dominion Athletic Conference - Lynchburg |
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Presidents' Athletic Conference – Allegheny |
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Skyline Conference – Farmingdale State |
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Southern Athletic Association - Oglethorpe |
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Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Redlands |
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Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference – Schreiner |
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St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Mississippi University for Women |
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United East Conference – Penn College |
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Upper Midwest Athletic Conference – Wisconsin-Superior |
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USA South Athletic Conference - Methodist |
Pool B Berth (1) Emory
Pool C Berths (8) (Alphabetical by institution name)
Carnegie Mellon
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Huntingdon
Saint John's (Minnesota)
University of the South
Texas-Dallas
Washington and Lee
Wittenberg
Individuals (6) (Alphabetical by institution name)
Andrew Bennett, Centenary (Louisiana)
Gabe Benson, Concordia-Moorhead
Elliot Parker, Drew
James Alden, Guilford
Avery Stansell, Rhodes
Jacob Mason, Trinity (Texas)
Carnegie Mellon is the defending national champion, winning the 2023 team title in Nicholasville, Kentucky. For more information about the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships, log on to NCAA.com.
