WARREN, Ohio. – SFU staged an epic third-round comeback to overcome a 9-stroke deficit and tie for eighth after 54-holes and then won the tiebreaker to advance to Thursday's head-to-head medal play for the NCAA Division II Men's Golf championship.
 
As the eighth-place finisher, SFU will face the 54-hole winner, Oklahoma Christian, in a head-to-head, knock-out competition. The winner advances to the Final Four.  Five players will be involved in the head-to-head action on Thursday morning. An individual win is worth a point and the Red Leafs will need three points to advance to the semifinal round on Thursday afternoon.  The lineup will be Aidan Goodfellow, Bailey Bjornson, Jordan Bean, Michael Crisologo, and Ryan Hodgins.
 
The Red Leafs were tied for 11^th with a team-total of 590 after 36 holes in stroke play and made up nine strokes to climb into the top eight. SFU ended play tied with Missouri S&T and Harding University (Ark.), all with three-round totals of 878.
 
In the tiebreaker, SFU shot -2, Missouri S&T was +1 and Harding was +2. SFU advances to the final eight for the second time in its history, having finished fifth in 2015.
 
SFU improved each day shooting 297, 293 and 288.  The Red Leafs final round team total of even-par 288, tied for the second-best round of the day. The squad recorded 12 birdies over the back nine to pull themselves into the top eight.
 
Michael Crisologo led the way by shooting a 4-under-par 68—his best round of tournament so far—to help SFU make up ground in the third round. His round included six birdies. Bailey Bjornson and Jordan Bean shot par 72s and Aidan Goodfellow was the fourth scoring member of SFU's group on Wednesday with a four-over 76. Ryan Hodgins shot 80.
 
In the race for individual medalist honours, Bjornson (73-73-72, 218) was tied for 25^th, Bean (73-75-72, 220) was tied for 36^th, Goodfellow (76-72-76, 224) and Crisologo (80-75-68, 224) were tied for 59^th and Hodgins (75-73-80, 228) was tied for 75^th
 
Oklahoma Christian shot 10-under par 854 to finish first and earn the top seed entering medal play. The Eagles won by 15 shots over second place Barry (Fla.).  Oklahoma Christian had rounds of 286, 277 and 291 and led the tournament with 61 birdies. SFU recorded the second most birdies with 52 over three rounds.
 
Andrew Riley of Palm Beach Atlantic won the individual competition after shooting a 5-under-par 67 on Wednesday to go with earlier rounds of 67 and 70 to finish at 12-under-par 204, two strokes in front of Jordan Lee of Western Washington. The Vikings were 15^th out of 20 teams.
 
SFU will tee off starting at 5:20 a.m. (PT) for Thursday's morning round with live scoring available via Golfstat.com.
 
LEARN TO PLAY GOLF WITH PRO KAT KENNEDY & WOMEN'S GOLF TEAM | JUNE 2
Enjoy a free introduction to golf on Friday, June 2 (4-5 p.m.) on Terry Fox Field with pro golfer and SFU assistant coach, Kat Kennedy, and the women's golf team, in celebration of International Women's Golf Day and PGA of BC Women's Golf Week. Everyone is welcome. No previous golf experience needed. All equipment will be provided. Registration is free and includes welcome gift, promotions to local golf facilities, prizes, and golf apparel odds and ends sale. Register: https://athletics.sfu.ca/womensgolfday
 
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