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COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Christopher Newport gained the No. 4 seed in the eight-team NCAA Division III championship finals in Marshall, Teas. The Captains (31-11) will play their double-elimination opener at 2:30 p.m. Thursday against No. 5 Berry of Rome, Georgia.
CNU won 6-2 over Berry during last year’s NCAAs on its way to a 47-1 record and the trophy. This year, the Captains won 8-5 at home against Berry.
CNU’s conference rival Salisbury is seeded No. 1 and will play at noon Thursday against No. 8 Moravian of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Captains’ second game in Marshall will be against one of those teams.
The other half of the bracket pits No. 7 Coe of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, against No. 2 Linfield of Oregon and No. 6 Rowan of New Jersey versus No. 3 Trine of Indiana, last year’s runner-up.
Rowan ousted Randolph-Macon in a three-game series in Ashland to advance, while CNU turned back Virginia Wesleyan in three games.
COLLEGE MEN’S GOLF
UVA advances to eight-team NCAA match play
Virginia finished seventh in stroke play Sunday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, to advance to the match-play portion of the NCAA Championships. It marks the first time since the NCAA switched to match play in 2009 to decide the team champion that UVA has advanced this far in the tournament. The Cavaliers’ previous best finish was 10th in 2017.
Virginia shot 3-under 277 during Monday’s final round, its best 18-hole score during the four rounds of stroke play. The Cavaliers’ 72-hole total was 11-over 1,131.
Stanford and Arizona State battled with the Cavaliers for the final position to advance. A couple of costly bogeys by each of those squads on their closing holes dropped them one shot behind UVA and put them into a tie for eighth place.
Sophomore Deven Patel rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt on his final hole to give the Cavaliers a one-stroke advantage on the leaderboard. UVA’s 3-under score was the third-best among the 15 teams competing during the fourth round.
UVA was led during the fourth round by the 2-under performance of freshman Ben James. He shot 4-under 276 for the tournament to place sixth. That is the second-best finish by a Cavalier at the NCAAs, matching current PGA Tour pro Denny McCarthy’s 2014 performance.
Earlier, James was named to the Ping All-East Region team.
UVA will face Florida in the quarterfinals of match play.
North Carolina finished first in stroke play at 6-under 1,114. Florida’s Fred Biondi won the individual title at 7-under 273.
Breaking News
The other teams to advance to match play were Florida (1,118), Illinois (1,118), Pepperdine (1,120), Georgia Tech (1,126) and Florida State (1,126). Arizona State (1,132) won a playoff with Stanford for the eighth spot.
COLLEGE TRACK AND FIELD
Seven UVA athletes gain NCAA berths
Seven Virginia Cavaliers qualified for the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas, via their recent performances at the East Preliminary in Jacksonville, Florida.
Five of UVA’s entries are men.
Nate Mountain and Derek Johnson qualified in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with times of 8 minutes, 37.40 seconds and 8:44.73, respectively.
Conor Murphy made it in the 800 meters at 1:50.23, Owayne Owens qualified in the triple jump at 53 feet, 3.75 inches, and Ethan Dabbs advanced in the javelin at 239-2.
The women who qualified were Ashley Anumba in the discus (181-2) and Margot Appleton in the 1,500 meters (4:14.54).