Johnstown, PA. - After all of the training over the last few weeks, the Wheeling University Men's Golf team made the trip to Johnstown, Pennsylvania on Thursday for the first round of the 2026 NCAA DII Atlantic/East Regional Championships. After 18 holes of competition, the Cardinals find themselves in prime position early, sitting tied for third with Pitt-Johnstown at 289. It was the Cardinal's lowest single round score of the spring season so far as they look to make a move in round two on Friday.
Leading the way was sophomore Zak Collins, who was one of five golfers at the event to finish with a subpar score on the day. He shot a 69 (-1) for the round, sitting just two strokes away from the Men's Golf Single-Round record. He would tee-off on hole one, and balanced a Bogey with a Birdie early on, and sat at even after three holes. He would hit his toughest stretch on holes 5-7, adding two strokes to his score, but finished the front nine strong. He would hit Birdie on back-to-back holes and evened out his score before heading to the back nine. He came around the turn strong, picking up three straight pars, before hitting his fourth birdie of the day on hole 13 to move to –1. He would respond with back-to-back pars, but sat even heading into the final hole after a bogey on 16. He rounded out the day strong with his fifth and final birdie on hole 18, to finish –1 for the round.
The other Cardinal to finish at par or better was graduate student Sean Dobson, who finsihed in a tie for seventh shooting par for the event. He started his day off consistent on the front nine, shooting three straight pars top open the round. However, he would end up adding three strokes to his score over the final six holes and went into the turn sitting at +3. However, all three of those strokes were taken right back when he hit the turn, shooting par on hole 10, and hitting three straight birdies to get to even par. He would hit pars the rest of the way, rounding out the event round. Rounding out the Cardinal's top three was Elias Ekenes-Fosback, who sits tied for 42nd shooting a 74 (+4) for the round. His front nine would see him shoot a +4, but he would take the back nine to end a strong day. He balanced out a Bogey with his lone Birdie of the round, finishing at +4 on the day.
The other two Cardinal golfers on the day were Lodin Femoen and Troy Loughry to round out their first round. The final scoring member of the Cardinal team was Femoen, who finished the round with a 76 to sit at +6 for the day. Femoen shot identical +3's on the front nine and the back nine, but had more consistency on the front nine. He would hit par on seven of the nine holes, before rounding out the day with six pars to round out the effort. Troy Loughry would finish up the day, shooting a 77 to finish at +7 for the round. His strongest showing would come on the front nine, where he shot +3, before hitting +4 on the back nine to round out the effort.
The Wheeling University Men's Golf team plays round two of the NCAA DII Atlantic/East Regional Championships on Friday, May 8th, with tee times beginning at 11:40 AM.
