TWICE AS NICE

PLYMOUTH, Ind. (MGCCCBulldogs.com) — Mississippi Gulf Coast defended its NJCAA Division II Men's Golf Championship on Friday, staving off a determined charge by Illinois Central here at Swan Lake Golf Resort.

The Bulldogs, who now have three team titles, swept the big trophies, with Stanley Campbell claiming the individual championship, the second Gulf Coast player to do so. They did so on a day when the rain clouds parted and the sun shone, but it never got particularly warm with a wicked wind tormenting the field.

Gulf Coast coach Brad Thornton and assistant Jackson Wedgeworth set up the gameplan months ago and implemented it to perfection. 

"Jackson and I put a real focus in a couple of key areas, the most important being the guy's mental toughness and showing some grit," he said. "And when you play in conditions like this, that's probably one of the biggest advantages is to have a great attitude, and these guys did that for 72 holes." 

Gulf Coast held off the Cougars by one shot, finishing at 26-over, and 12 better than third-place South Mountain. Campbell, a sophomore from London, England, shot 5-over to win medalist by two strokes. He joins Colin Troxler, who won the individual title in 2017.

"I'm just over the moon," Campbell said. "I've said it from Day One when I first got here in August after we won last year. I said, I want the team to win, but I want to win this individually. I want to show everyone that I can do this. and I have. It's unbelievable."

He had to hold off ICC's Trey Boecker on 18 to clinch the win. All the short-game practices Gulf Coast uses paid off. They were almost right beside each other in the fairway, and Campbell stuck his approach from 125 feet within 15 feet. That put the pressure on Boecker, who wound up with a long putt he had to make to have a chance to win.

He missed, and Campbell got his first putt within inches for a title-clinching tap-in.

"He wanted to know exactly where we stood as a team, and he was able to take that information and not let it get to him in a negative way," Thornton said. "He just outperformed people this week."

Campbell, who will play at Jacksonville State next year, beat the previous Gulf Coast low-score on this course by four shots, and the team got the Swan Lake monkey off the program's back. No Gulf Coast team had finished better than third here in six previous trips.

Gulf Coast is the 13^th school to win the Division II team and individual titles in the same year since 1990. The Bulldogs are the fourth team to win three D-II team titles, joining South Mountain, Tyler and Darton, and the first to repeat since South Mountain in 2015-16.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 10 shots on the back nine, but that lead dwindled to one as they came down the stretch. All five Gulf Coast golfers made par on the final hole to ice it, and they did it in interesting ways.

Ludvig Behring (So., Sollentuna, Sweden/Osterakers Gymnasium), who finished sixth at 8-over and will play at Lindenwood next year, nearly chipped in for birdie from off the green, with his shot spinning to the back of the cup for a tap-in.

"I had a pretty standard chip, but still tough under pressure," he said. "Everything's tough under pressure, and I started walking it in with like 6 feet left. I started charging my pump, and it just lipped out. And I just put my hands on my head, and I couldn't believe it."

John Mark Mills (So., Pontotoc/Mike Bender Golf Academy), who finished 11^th at 10-over and is headed to Austin Peay, went all the way to the 10^th green of the resort's other course as part of the plan to avoid trouble down the left. He took relief from the green, and chipped up for a two-putt par. 

Garner Seymour (So., Biloxi/Biloxi) and Peyton Russell (So., Gautier/Gautier) had made their pars minutes earlier. Seymour ended his collegiate golf career on top of the mountain.

"It means the world to do it with my brothers and be able to get it done," he said. "That's the best way to end it, the best way to end it."

Russell played in both national championship tournaments for the Bulldogs.

"Last year and this year, just the relationships I built with this team, it means a lot," he said. "To get it done back-to-back years is really, really special."

Campbell, Behring and Mills were named to the All-Tournament Team. Campbell and Behring earned First-Team NJCAA All-Americans honors, with Mills on the Second Team.

"All five of these guys, they're so special to me," Thornton said. "It's five sophomores, two of whom were directly a part of this back-to-back championship, but all five of them have bought in since they came here and consistently improved. The grit that they showed coming down the stretch today, when it really got tight, was amazing. You're going to make mistakes in the 72-hole golf tournament, and we made some today. We didn't play perfect, but I thought that their grit, really, really shined through coming down the stretch."