May 20—Wright State golfers normally never leave an NCAA regional feeling glum. Any season that ends with taking hacks beside the best teams in the nation is always considered a success.
But their last-place showing among 13 teams at the Ohio State regional will be hard to shake — not so much for not making the top five to advance to the nationals, but fizzling with such an experienced team.
Shane Ochs made a run at grabbing the lone individual spot on a non-qualifying team for the NCAA championships. But the senior from Carroll could muster only a final-round 83 and tied for 41st.
Junior Timmy Hollenbeck and senior Adam Horn also didn’t have their A games consistently at the Scarlet course, which greeted the players with high winds the first two days and then turned into mush with heavy early rains Wednesday, May 20.
Hollenbeck shot 75-77-71 to go 10-over and tie for 27th, and Horn went 73-78-76 for 14-over and a tie for 45th.
“It’s just frustrating. I think they’re capable of more. I think they do, too. But deep down, I don’t know,” said coach Conner Lash, who has led the Raiders to four regional trips
in his five years.
“It’s tough. You’re in college, and you’re up against these guys who fly private here and have Trackmans and GCQuads (swing monitors) on the range. They have a lot of resources, and we’re a smaller school.”
Wright State finished 58-over. Second-ranked Florida won in a blowout at even par, while Stanford (24-over), Memphis (25-over), Arizona State (30-over) and Florida State (31-over) grabbed the other qualifying spots for the finals.
The Raiders lose Ochs, Horn and new starter Ian Asch, who’s a fourth-year junior but has decided to enter the working world.
Hollenbeck, the 2025 Horizon League golfer of the year, is back along with freshman starter CJ Scohy.
Five of the team’s 10 players were either freshmen or redshirt freshmen, and Lash will add two more next season, which means they’ll have to get acclimated quickly.
“I believe in all of them. They all have the capability. It’s just a matter of, college is hard, and there’s a lot of distractions,” Lash said.
“Hopefully, they all want to be here, they all want to play, they all want to work hard. It’s just pointing them in the right direction. I’m excited for the future. I always am.”
Wright State has won three straight league titles and four of the last five, joining Cleveland State as the only programs to win three in a row in HL history.
“Every year that we can get to a regional like this, it shows we’re close. There’s definitely a lot of things to work on. I think for those young guys — some of them were out here watching, too — it’s good for them to see it,” Lash said.
“Hopefully, as we keep getting here — and even if we don’t keep getting here — at least these reps show us we’re not that far off. A little harder work and maybe a little tweak in practice schedules, and we’ll get where we want to be.”
