Wildcat Wrap: Men’s golf earns top five finish at Arizona N.I.T.

Editor’s note: With so many sports going on this spring, we are re-introducing the Wildcat Wrap, a weekly recap that will focus on the Arizona programs that we do not have the time to cover on a regular basis but are certainly worthy of recognition.

Arizona men’s golf finished in fifth place at the Arizona N.I.T. The Wildcats were led by Brad Reeves, who placed fourth in the individual contest.

The two-day, three-round event at OMNI Tucson National attracted some of the top programs in the nation including Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, who placed first and second respectively.

The Wildcats were in the mix heading into the final round Sunday but couldn’t finish as strong as head coach Jim Anderson would have liked.

Arizona shot a 28-under over the three rounds, tied with Illinois for fifth and one stroke behind fourth place San Diego State. Reeves went 12-under for 54 holes, while Trevor Werbylo tied for 24^th at 4-under.

“We had a great start to the round, and I really thought we could make a major move as we turned to the back nine,” Anderson told ArizonaWilcdats.com. “Unfortunately, we were not able to finish things off as we made too many mistakes on the putting green. We know we can bounce back, and it will be good to have more chances in great fields in the future. Our team is resilient, and Brad had a great week and is ready for a charge this spring. He’s played stellar golf, and we know he can putt himself in a great position any week.”

Arizona will compete in three tournaments in April before embarking on postseason play.

Beach Volleyball

Beach volleyball split a pair of matches at the Cal Poly Tri-Match, topping Boise State 4-1 before falling to host Cal Poly 3-2, both on Sunday.

The No. 15 Wildcats had already beaten Boise State once this season in Tucson 5-0 and had little trouble against the Broncos second time around.

However, Arizona against No. 5 Cal Poly, dropping the No. 1, 2 and 5 seed games. Dana Parker and Mady Noble moved to a perfect 4-0 on the No. 4 seed court.

Arizona begins Pac-12 play this weekend by hosting the Pac-12 South Invitational. The Wildcats will take on Stanford, Oregon, Utah and Arizona State over two days.

Swimming and Diving

Arizona diver Delaney Schnell finished runner-up at the Women’s NCAA Championships platform event. Schnell, a Tucson native, scored a 331.80.

Schnell will now likely turn her attention toward making the US Olympic Diving team. She previously competed at the Olympic Trials in 2016 as a 17-year old, where she placed sixth individually in the platform competition.

Schnell will be considered a favorite to make the team this year. In 2019 she competed at the World Diving Championships and became the first US woman to earn a world championships medal (bronze) in an individual Olympic-program event in 14 years.

Men’s and Women’s Tennis

It was not a great week on the hardcourt for Arizona’s tennis programs, as both the men and women were swept by top competition.

The men embarked on a six-day Big 12 road trip where they lost matches to No. 3 Baylor (2-5), No. 7 Texas (3-4) and No. 28 Oklahoma (1-4). The men’s best chance came against the Longhorns, where they lost the doubles point and split singles.

They’ll have to put that trip behind them as quickly as possible. The men host No. 11 USC and No. 23 this weekend to open Pac-12 play. Picking up a win against either powerhouse would be a good way to begin the conference season.

Meanwhile, the women’s team continues to be outclassed by Pac-12 opponents. This past weekend they lost at Cal (0-7) and Stanford (2-5) to drop to 0-5 in the conference.

The women will have a reasonable chance to get back in the win column when they host New Mexico State next Monday.