UMSL golfer wins Division II championship, first in school’s historical past | Sports activities

Competing for the University of Missouri St. Louis in the NCAA Division II Championships at TPC Michigan in Dearborn, Sylven rallied in the rain all through the ultimate round and captured the title, successful in a unexpected-dying playoff in opposition to 2021 countrywide winner Keegan Bronnenberg from the College of Indianapolis.

Sylven’s nationwide title is the 1st by an unique in faculty record. The 1973 men’s soccer staff is the only other nationwide champion at UMSL.

“It’s undoubtedly the highlight of my job to this point — it is difficult to top rated a countrywide championship — but I truthfully really do not come to feel any various. I’m even now the exact same man I was two weeks in the past,’’ explained Sylven, a 23-calendar year-old senior from Falkenberg, Sweden. “We’d faced a good deal of the identical teams during the season, but I knew this was the very best of the most effective. The essential, I believe, was remaining equipped to keep my aim throughout the event and specially with the situations as they had been on that last day. The climate the 1st day was terrific and it was warm and windy on the 2nd day. That 3rd day, it rained the total time we have been on the course. Honestly, I consider perhaps that was to my edge.

“Growing up in Sweden, we played in a good deal of crappy temperature. You discover to keep your gear dry and you find out how to participate in as a result of it.”

Sylven, who shot a 74 on Monday and 70 on Tuesday, battled as a result of the temperature to card another 2-under-par 70 all through Wednesday’s last round. The challenge was, he finished his match various hrs just before the occasion leaders.

“I understood I had a great rating, but I wasn’t confident if it was excellent ample,’’ he said. “I grabbed some lunch and then, about 30 minutes in advance of the previous group completed, I went back again out and started out going by means of my regular heat-up program.”

In the playoff, Sylven ran into a familiar foe in Bronnenberg.

“As our teams’ leading players, Keegan and I have most likely played alongside one another 15 times in excess of the course of this season we know every other nicely and we have turn out to be friends,” Sylven spelled out. “It was a tiny bizarre, but I consider each of us have a whole lot of regard for each individual other and our online games. In the course of the year, we have each experienced our moments I never consider possibly of us felt we had been at an edge or disadvantage.”

Sylven ongoing: “I hit a fantastic travel and adopted up with a wedge shot that put me in position to putt for birdie. And I built it for the get. It was a good feeling, acquiring all my teammates and the other golfers encompassing the green on that very last hole.”

Bronnenberg, who shot 73, 69 and 72 in the match, completed the playoff gap with a par.

The tournament championship was Sylven’s fourth of the time and the seventh of his career with the Tritons. He results in being an NCAA Division II PING To start with Crew All-American he was a 3rd-staff alternative in 2019 when he placed 35th at the DII championships in West Virginia and was an honorable mention collection in 2020.

A senior majoring in sporting activities management, Sylven designs to contend a person much more season at UMSL right before getting his golf activity to the expert level. This summer months, when scheduling to get aspect in a quantity of amateur tournaments, he’ll also be undertaking an internship as an assistant golfing pro at St. Louis State Club.

“Winning this championship of course boosts my self confidence and will with any luck , open up some doorways in my vocation relocating ahead,’’ stated Sylven. “I came to this region to blend teachers with activity and UMSL’s genuinely been a good suit for me.”

Other UMSL gamers competing at the NCAAs included junior Juan Antonio Padilla (tie, 15th), senior Reilly Ahearn (tie, 41st), sophomore Nick Hedberg (tie, 78th) and freshman Ian McCrary (tie, 81st). Ahearn, a senior, is from Ladue Higher.

As a group, the Tritons observed their period end with a 4.5-.5 reduction to Oklahoma Christian in the quarterfinal round of NCAA match play. UMSL’s McCrary posted a tie for his team’s only points in that reduction.

UMSL, coached by Troy Halterman and assistants Dick Halterman and Chris Ferris, tied for fifth put, matching the 2013 squad for the program’s greatest nationwide finish. The Tritons gained the Great Lakes Valley Meeting championship in Indianapolis as Sylven attained medalist honors and then defeated Indianapolis 4-1 for the GLVC match enjoy title.