(Chautauqua, N.Y.) The Butler County Community College golf team is on the cusp of its best finish in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national championship tournament, and Troy Loughry and Liam Kosior of becoming the college’s second set of All-Americans in golf in the same season.
The Pioneers on Thursday shot a 322 and are in fifth place entering Friday’s final round on the par-72 Chautauqua Golf Club Lake Course in Chautauqua, N.Y. BC3’s best finish in five previous appearances in the national championship tournament was sixth in 2022.
The 18 golfers with the lowest scores after the 72-hole national championship tournament are selected to be All-Americans.
Tommy Dimon and Stefan Carlsson in 2015 became BC3’s first set of All-Americans in the same season.
Golfers who place first through sixth become first-team All-Americans.
Loughry finished fifth in 2022 to become BC3’s first first-team All-American. He had a 75 on Thursday and with a three-round 223 is two strokes from sixth place.
“I think I am the best golfer who has ever played at the school – that’s my opinion. I know the more stats that you put up proves that. And I am going to go out (Friday) and just play the best that I can.”
Kosior shot a 79 and with a 233 is two strokes from 18th. He finished the 2022 national championship tournament tied for 20th and two strokes shy of becoming an All-American.
“It has weighed on my mind,” Kosior said. “It has. I’m going to not let it affect me (Friday). I’m going to go out and play my game and hopefully the numbers fall where they may.”
Kosior said he thinks he needs to shoot a 75 on Friday to finish among the top 18 golfers.
“I want to become an All-American very badly,” Kosior said. “It means a lot. That’s the score I have to shoot if I want to make it, but I don’t know. It’s going to be close.”
Kosior on Wednesday had the lowest score of a BC3 golfer competing in the national championship tournament since at least 2009 with a 71.
“I want to become an All-American very badly. It means a lot."
The Pioneers’ Cory Voltz on Thursday had an 80, Tanner Hohmann, an 88 and Jack Mason, a 90.
Loughry, Kosior, Mason, Hohmann and Collin Witouski in 2022 had a three-round score of 1,010 in the national championship tournament.
Loughry, Kosior, Mason, Hohmann and Cory Voltz in 2023 have a three-round score of 957 and are two strokes behind fourth-place Jamestown (N.Y.) Community College.
“A realistic spot for us could be fourth place,” BC3 coach Bill Miller said. “Even if fifth, that would be the highest we have finished. They’ve done well. Over the past two years I could not have asked for more.”
Sandhills Community College, Pinehurst, N.C., the two-time defending national champion, has a three-round 862 and remains in first place among the 11 teams to qualify for the tournament.
Georgia Military College, Milledgeville, Ga., is second at 883 and the College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Ill, is third at 943.
“It would be hard for us to get first place, but finishing higher than sixth would be a great standard to set for BC3 teams that come after us,” Mason said.
“We are 100 percent capable of it,” Voltz said.
“For our team, our goal was to come up here and play the best golf that we can,” Loughry said. “And (Friday) we will have a chance to cement that in history.”
“For our team, our goal was to come up here and play the best golf that we can. And (Friday) we will have a chance to cement that in history.”
Ben Read, of Sandhills, shot a 67 on Thursday and is the three-round individual leader with a 209.
Hohmann will tee off first for the Pioneers at 9:45 a.m. Friday. Loughry will tee off last for BC3 at 10:21 a.m.
BC3 earned its sixth automatic berth in the national championship tournament by winning its sixth NJCAA Division III Region 20 championship in May.
BC3 golfers have won six All-American awards since 1996.
The college’s athletics programs have earned berths in NJCAA national championship tournaments 11 times since 2002.
Loughry and Hohmann are graduates of Grove City High School; Kosior, of Neshannock High; Voltz, of Knoch; and Mason, of Freeport.
