RENO, Nev. – Led by Cole Ponich, the BYU men’s golf team shot 291-275-283 to finish at 15-under and secure a spot in the NCAA Championship on Wednesday night at Montreux Golf and Country Club.

“The guys stepped up to all the weather delays this week,” head coach Bruce Brockbank said. “They played great golf in the most difficult conditions we’ve faced all year. The seniors led our team, especially with Cole finishing runner-up in an event like this. It was a team effort throughout the week. I’m excited for our team.”

Ponich (71-71-67–209) finished second individually at 7-under. He made six birdies and one bogey in his final round, climbing five spots on the leaderboard to close out the 54-hole event.

“It feels great to compete in a tournament where the pressure is high,” Ponich said. “We all handled the tough conditions well. We committed to giving everything we had, and that’s exactly what we did. This result gives us a lot of confidence heading into the championship, but we know we still have work to do. I’m excited to close out my career at BYU with my teammates and coaches at the National Championship.”

The Cougars finished four shots ahead of No. 9 Virginia. No. 4 Texas placed third at 8-under par, while San Diego and California rounded out the final qualifiers for the national championship.

Peter Kim (72-67-72–211) tied for fifth, finishing at 5-under. Kim’s final round included an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole. He also made 14 birdies over the three days, the second-most in the field, and averaged 3.83 on par-4 holes, ranking second. This marked his fifth top-five finish of the season.

Senior Zac Jones tied for 11th with rounds of 72-70-73–215, making four birdies in his final round.

Simon Kwon tied for 25th at 3 over par, recording 15 birdies, the most of any individual. Tyson Shelley tied for 39th at 9-over.

As a team, BYU led the field with a par-5 scoring average of 4.73 strokes per hole and 61 total birdies, the most of any team.

BYU will travel to Carlsbad, California, for the NCAA National Championship, set for May 23-28 at Omni La Costa Resort.

UVU’s Huddleston just short of qualifying for NCAA’s

RENO, Nev. — Utah Valley sophomore Dane Huddleston capped off a remarkable season with a final-round 3-under-par 69 on Wednesday to finish tied for fifth at the NCAA Reno Regional at Montreux Golf & Country Club.

Huddleston posted a three-round total of 5-under-par 211 (71-71-69), finishing just one stroke shy of advancing to the NCAA Championship. Huddleston narrowly missed out on the lone individual qualifying spot, which was claimed by Duke’s Bryan Kim at 6-under-par. The top individual not on one of the five advancing teams from each regional earns a berth to the NCAA Championship, set for May 23-28 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.

“So close,” Utah Valley head coach Chris Curran said. “Dane played great golf all week, and to come up just one shot short of advancing stings. But it doesn’t take away from the incredible year he had. He put together one of the best seasons in program history, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

The tournament was plagued by delays due to high winds and even snow, pushing play into each evening and requiring golfers to complete unfinished rounds the following mornings. Huddleston returned Wednesday to finish the final four holes of his second round before teeing off in his final round. In Wednesday’s third round, Huddleston tallied five birdies and 11 pars to card his best round of the week. His final-round 69 pushed him to 5-under for the tournament and solidified his place among the top five in the 75-player field.

Huddleston wraps up the 2024-25 campaign as one of the most decorated golfers in program history. He won five individual titles during the season–at the Utah Shootout, Kapolei Invitational, Mesquite Desert Classic, Bandon Dunes Championship, and WAC Championship–becoming Utah Valley’s all-time leader in career individual victories. His five wins also tie for the fourth-most ever recorded in a single season in NCAA Division I history. Huddleston is one of just 24 golfers all-time to reach the five-win mark in a season, joining the likes of Phil Mickelson (Arizona State, 1991-92) and Corey Pavin (UCLA, 1981-82). The all-time NCAA record of eight victories in a season is shared by Tiger Woods (Stanford, 1995-96), Jay Don Blake (Utah State, 1980-81), and Matt Hill (NC State, 2008-09).

BYU softball earns All-Region awards

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — BYU softball had three student-athletes named to National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region teams, the organization announced on Thursday afternoon.

Ilove’a Brittingham was named to the All-Mountain Region First Team while both Kaysen Korth and Lindy Milkowski earned All-Mountain Region Second Team nods.

An NFCA Freshman of the Year top 10 finalist, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, All-Big 12 First Team honoree and an Big 12 All-Freshman Team member, Brittingham led the Cougars in 10 offensive categories while setting BYU’s freshman RBI record and tying the program’s single-season freshman home run record as well.

She led the Big 12 in home runs (21), home runs per game (0.43), RBI (69), RBI per game (1.41), sacrifice flies (4), slugging percentage (.839) and total bases (135), ranking in the top 20 nationally in four of those categories, including No. 3 in the country in RBI per game and No. 6 in home runs per game.

Korth paced the Cougars in ERA (2.25), wins (16), complete games (5), saves (5), innings pitched (124.2), strikeouts (102) and opposing batting average (.241). Her five saves were good for No. 13 in the nation and led the Big 12.

This is the first All-Region honor of her career. Korth was an All-WCC First Team honoree and three-time WCC Pitcher of the Week as a freshman in 2023 before sitting out majority of the 2024 season with injury.

Milkowski led the Big 12 with 12 home runs in conference play and had the league’s second-highest slugging percentage (.851) against conference opponents. Behind the dish, she caught 18 runners stealing, which led the league and ranked No. 11 nationally.

An All-Big 12 First Team honoree, she also averaged 0.37 home runs per game this season, which ranked No. 22 in the country. This is Milkowski’s first All-Region award as well. She is a three-time all-conference team member between her time at BYU and Eastern Illinois.

UVU’s Sapp garners All-Mountain Region

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Utah Valley sophomore pitcher and outfielder Avery Sapp has been named to the NFCA All-Mountain region third team, the organization announced in a release on Thursday.

Sapp, a native of Spanish Fork, Utah, got better in all facets as the year went on as she played her first season as a full-time two-way player. Sapp kept the Wolverines in the game just about every time she took the ball down the stretch, allowing three or fewer earned runs in each of her final 13 appearances on the season for a team-best 3.60 ERA in that span.

Sapp was the workhorse for the Wolverine pitching staff this season, tossing a team-high 139.1 innings — roughly 43% of the team’s innings pitched — while striking out a career-high 97 batters. Sapp earned 11 wins in 2025, the most by any UVU pitcher since 2022 and tied for 10th-most all-time.

Sapp picked up the win in Utah Valley’s 6-4 victory over BYU on April 1, the team’s first in Provo since 2015, while also going 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored. In the first weekend of the season, Sapp struck out a career-high nine batters en route to a complete game win over a Boise State team that had a top-10 offense this season.

Two of her best all-around performances came against the Abilene Christian Wildcats — first on April 4 and second on May 7 at the WAC Tournament. On April 4, Sapp came two outs away from a no-hitter in UVU’s 13-3 win over the Wildcats, while also going 2-for-2 with a homer and three RBIs.

In Riverside, with the Wolverines’ season on the line in the WAC Tournament play-in game, Sapp delivered 4.1 dominant shutout innings, allowing just two hits while also going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs to extend Utah Valley’s season with an 8-0 run-rule win.

This is the second-straight year that Utah Valley has had an All-Region honoree, following Halle Morris’ first team nod a season ago. Sapp is the fourth Wolverine overall to be named All-Region — all of whom were primarily pitchers — joining Makayla Shadle (2018) and Lauren Frailey Spendlove (2017).