JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Junior Sam Smith birdied three of his final five holes to provide Midwestern State with a late surge in Wednesday afternoon's final round of the NCAA Division II Midwest/South Central Regional at the Par-72, 7,112-yard Jefferson Country Club.
 
That was just enough to launch the Mustangs into the upper half of the team leader board as MSU closed the season firing rounds of 302, 292 and 301 for a total of 895 (+31) to fall 11 strokes shy of qualifying for the NCAA Division II Championships set for May 15-18 at the Cardinal Club in Simpsonville, Ky.
 
Super Region champ Central Missouri (864/E) along with Washburn (876/+12), Central Oklahoma (877/+13), Indianapolis (880/+16) and St. Edward's (884/+20) earned the right to move on to national play as well as top two individual qualifiers including former Holliday High School standout Trey Lawson of Cameron and Ferris State's Kyle Wittenbach. Each fired matching three-round even-Par totals of 216.
 
Central Oklahoma's Josh Creel claimed top individual medalist honors carding rounds of 72, 68 and 71 on his way to a 5-under total of 211.
 
Midwestern came into the final round in position to challenge for its first national berth after firing a 292 to stand two strokes out of fifth place, but the Mustangs recorded a final round 301 as the teams recording the five top scores on the final moved on.
 
MSU struggled to a +9 showing over its first nine holes Wednesday before closing strong at a +2 clip on the final nine but it wasn't enough to extend its exceptional season.
 
Freshman Derek Oland led the way with a 2-over 74 to finish the tournament tied for 26th with a three-round total of 221 (+5) while sophomore Jeremy LeGuen battled to post a third-round 75.
 
Smith and junior Raine Copeland closed out the Mustangs' countable scores with matching totals of 76 while senior Trevor Arianna notched an 81.
 
Smith finished tied 36th with a total of 225 (+9) and Copeland tied for 54th with a 228 (+12) while LeGuen (229/+13) finished 62nd and Arianna (230/+14) was 71st. 
           
  

NCAA II MW/South Central Regional
Jefferson City Country Club Jefferson City, Mo. Par-72, 7,112 yards
Team Leaderboard
Place	Team	Round Scores	Total	To Par
1	Central Missouri	286-289-289	864	E
2	Washburn	299-291-286	876	+12
3	Central Oklahoma	300-290-287	877	+13
4	Indianapolis	296-295-289	880	+16
5	St. Edward's	300-293-291	884	+20
6	Grand Valley State	296-296-295	887	+23
7	Northern Kentucky	292-304-294	890	+26
	Cameron	302-295-293	890	+26
9	Midwestern State	302-292-301	895	+31
10	Ferris State	300-294-302	896	+32
	Abilene Christian	304-295-297	896	+32
12	Bellarmine	296-307-295	898	+34
13	West Texas A&M	300-298-304	902	+38
14	Arkansas-Fort Smith	301-308-300	909	+45
15	Northeastern State	307-299-304	910	+46
16	Ashland	306-306-306	918	+54
17	Tiffin	306-302-312	920	+56
18	Findlay	316-303-305	924	+60
19	Wayne State (Mich.)	318-313-305	936	+72
20	Northwood (Mich.)	314-313-314	941	+77
Individual Leaderboard
Place	Player, Team	Round Scores	Total	To Par
1	Josh Creel, Central Oklahoma	72-68-71	211	-5
2	Jared King, Central MIssouri	68-71-74	213	-3
	Cy Moritz, Central Missouri	75-70-68	213	-3
4	Trey Lawson, Cameron	74-71-71	216	E
	Kyle Wittenbach, Ferris State	75-72-69	216	E
6	Brandon Johnson, Dallas Baptist	75-71-71	217	+1
	Riley Piles, Washburn	77-72-68	217	+1
	Dillon Rust, Central Oklahoma	73-71-73	217	+1
	Michael Schmidt, Northern Kentucky	75-75-67	217	+1
10	Bryan Ratterman, Bellarmine	72-73-73	218	+2
	Travis Shooks, Grand Valley State	68-73-77	218	+2
Midwestern State Scorecard
9	Midwestern State	302-292-301	895	+31
26t	Derek Oland	78-69-74	221	+5
36t	Sam Smith	73-76-76	225	+9
54t	Raine Copeland	77-75-76	228	+12
62t	Jeremy LeGuen	75-79-75	229	+13
71t	Trevor Arianna	77-72-81	230	+14