STOCKTON, Calif. – Midwestern State is one of 20 teams competing in the NCAA DII West/South Central Regional. The 54-hole tournament tees off Thursday morning at The Reserve at Spanos Park. 

At a minimum, the top three teams and the top two student-athletes not with a team from each regional will advance to the finals, May 18–22 at the Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nevada. The remaining eight team berths will be allocated based on the regions represented in the prior year's head-to-head medal play portion of the championships.

Midwestern State won the Rattler Invitational at Dominion Country Club earlier this spring and is coming off a fourth-place finish at the LSC Championships, which was played at Rockwall Golf & Athletic Club. The Mustangs lost to top-seeded UT Tyler in the medal-match play semifinals. 

Cameron defeated Tyler in the final, 3.5-1.5, and both teams are in the field along with St. Mary's, West Texas A&M, Dallas Baptist and UT Permian Basin from the Lone Star Conference.

Seth Bearden won the National Preview in October and has three top-five finishes this year. He also finished seventh in the 90-player field at the Houston Classic and was 11th in the 89-player field at the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invite. The senior from Crowell, Texas, finished fifth in his most recent tournament at the LSC Championship, and he is ranked No. 9 in the region. 

Nathan Nelson had his best result of the year at the Rattler Invitational, where he finished third at 3-under 214, just two strokes behind the winner Nathan Biais of Northeastern State and one stroke behind his teammate Ryan Griff. The sophomore from Gunter, Texas, is coming off back-to-back 12th place finishes at the LSC Championship and the Palm Valley Classic. Nelson shot 8-under 208 at the Palm Valley Golf Club in Goodyear, Arizona. He finished 10-over at the LSC Championship two weeks ago.

Griff was the runner-up at the Rattler Invitational, where he finished with 10 birdies and two eagles. He finished 3-under 213, shooting even-par or better in all three rounds. The sophomore from Bulverde, Texas, shot 12-over in the first round of the LSC Championship but improved in each of the next two rounds. Griff shot 5-over in the second round and closed with a 2-over 74 in the final, finishing the tournament 42nd in a field of 70 LSC golfers.

Anniston McIlwain is coming off his first top-10 result as a Mustang, shooting 7-over at the LSC Championship after carding back-to-back rounds of even-par 72 in the second and third rounds. McIlwain, who finished tied for ninth place, shot 4-under on the par 5s, including an eagle in the second round at the 600-yard, sixth hole at Rockwall Golf & Athletic Club. McIlwain recorded 34 pars in the 54-hole event, which was the most among the Mustangs and eighth-most in the 70-player field.

Chase Kisver appeared in five tournaments for the Mustangs this season with his best finish coming at the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invite, where he competed as an individual and finished 29th at 1-over. He was inserted as a sub for the final two rounds of the Lone Star Conference Championship and shot 6-over for the final 36 holes of the tournament.

Midwestern State is making its 15th consecutive appearance in the regional tournament and is seeking its second berth all-time in the national finals and its first since 2022. Last year, the Mustangs finished seventh in the NCAA Division II West/South Central Regional. The Mustangs finished three strokes behind West Texas A&M and a berth in the NCAA Division II Championship. Midwestern State shot 17-under 847 as a team through three rounds at Victoria Club in Riverside, California.

Bearden tied for 17th place on the individual leaderboard at 6-under 210, and Griff tied for 28th place at 4-under 212. 

The Reserve at Spanos Park is a links-style course, which opened in 1999 and was designed by Andy Ragaust.  The course features fast-breaking bent-grass greens with water from seven lakes coming into play on 12 of the 18 holes. The 7,132-yard championship layout has rye-grass fairways defended by 58 bunkers.

The weather forecast is calling for mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures all three days with winds from the north at 10-15 mph.