Richmond Spiders men's golf ends season with 11th place at NCAA Regionals

The Richmond Spiders men's golf team finished its season on May 20 with an 11th-place showing at the NCAA Regionals in Winston-Salem. The Spiders, who set a program record by winning four tournaments this year and secured their second Atlantic 10 title, completed the three-day event at Bermuda Run Country Club with a score of seven-over par (859), ahead of Little Rock, Presbyterian, and Navy.

This result matches Richmond's best finish at an NCAA Regional in the past quarter-century. Junior Jack LaPiana led the team in Wednesday's final round with a two-under-par 69 after struggling earlier in the tournament. "I never really gave up after a pretty bad first round," said LaPiana. "It felt good to shoot a low round the last round, but obviously I wish I could have done it the first couple of rounds too and help out the team a little more. I just kept grinding and stayed patient and didn't give up on it."

Sophomore Carson Baez shot one-under-par for his twentieth under-par round this season, finishing as Richmond's top individual at even par (213) and tied for thirty-third overall. Freshman Lucas Rizo-Patron ended one shot behind Baez at one-over (214), tying for thirty-seventh place in his first event since winning last month's A-10 Championship.

Junior Quin Polin tied for fifty-eighth at six-over (219), while senior Drew Carlin closed out his collegiate career by placing sixty-sixth at ten-over (223). The team's eleventh-place finish equals its result from its previous NCAA Regional appearance in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2017; only once has Richmond placed higher—eighth place in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1999.

"Super steady from the first tournament of the year to the last of the year," said head coach Adam Decker, who was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year for a record fifth time earlier this month. "There were a few ups and downs in between but they showed the ability to shoot really low scores and stay competitive even after one bad round during the week. There was a lot of fight, a lot of great internal competition, and I think being a fairly young team there's a lot of great opportunity ahead of us as well." LaPiana added: "It's only a stepping stone, really. We've got a lot more good golf in us... It's just another step for the Richmond Spiders golf program."