No athletics program at Butler County Community College has earned more automatic berths to a national championship tournament than men’s golf, whose teams have advanced to the spring-season pinnacle six times and as recently as 2023.
The Pioneers who won a conference title with a 43-stroke victory in the fall return this spring and could become the seventh to reach the four-day competition in June, Pioneers coach Bill Miller said.
“It potentially could be as strong as any team we have had,” Miller said. “But they still have to perform and score and do well.”
2024 Lincoln High School graduate and Pioneers golfer Mitchell Covert is projected to battle for the Pioneers’ second spot during a spring season in which BC3 seeks to win a regional title and earn an automatic berth to the national championship tournament.
BC3 would earn another automatic berth to Chautauqua Golf Club in New York by virtue of winning the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Region 20 crown, as it did in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Following an eight-match schedule that begins April 11 at North Park Golf Course, Allison Park, the Pioneers will compete for the Region 20 title against four other squads May 12-13 at the Links in Spring Church, Apollo.
The victor qualifies to advance to Chautauqua Golf Club Lake Course, which in 2024 drew regional winners from Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina — and Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County Community College, which edged the Pioneers in a Region 20 tiebreaker.
Fall all-stars exude confidence
Mitchell Covert, a member of Butler County Community College’s men’s golf team and a graduate of Lincoln High School in Ellwood City, is shown Saturday, Oct. 4, 2024, at the Western Pennsylvania College Conference championship tournament in Apollo.
“Coming off the fall season, I think we are confident that we will be able to put on a good performance,” said Covert.
“I’m fairly confident we can manage winning the region,” Jacob Marquardt said.
“I think if we stay consistent … going into the regional, we shouldn’t have too much of an issue,” teammate Xander Downing said.
“I’m pretty confident about this spring,” Parker Worsley said. “We have a good, solid lineup. A bunch of guys who have golfed for a while and they can score pretty good.”
Marquardt, Covert, Downing and Worsley had the four lowest individual scores in the two-round, four-team Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship in October, when BC3 placed first with a 621 and Westmoreland County Community College second with a 664.
“Being that we won the conference in the fall, I would think we have a pretty good chance of winning the region this spring,” Miller said. “Our new goal is to go out and win the region. That’s our goal. They’re confident. And I think we have a reasonable shot at doing that.”
Marquardt was the conference tournament medalist with a 153. Covert and Downing – the 2023 WPCC medalist — were tied at 156 after regulation. Covert finished second after edging Downing in the third hole of a sudden-death playoff. Worsley placed fourth with a 159.
Each was named to the conference all-tournament team.
“A very deep group that plays very, very well”
Marquardt averaged a 69 in the fall and will be the Pioneers’ No. 1 golfer this spring, Miller said. Downing, who averaged a 77.25, and Covert, a 78.75, will battle for BC3’s No. 2 and No. 3 spots, Miller said, and will be followed by Worsley, 80.2; Ben Perris, 81; Jaxon Salata, 78.75; and Noah Ritchie, Butler, 85.8.
“We have a very deep group that plays very, very well,” Miller said.
“A deep lineup,” Covert said.
“Definitely the most stacked that we have been in my two years,” said Downing, BC3’s only sophomore on a roster of freshmen. “We have four or five guys who can shoot pretty close to even par on any given day.”
“Everybody on our team can easily shoot under 80 on a good day,” Marquardt said. “If we play how we did in the fall, or get even a little bit better, I think we have a pretty good shot at winning the region.”
Downing qualified as an individual to play in the national championship in 2024 by placing third in the Region 20 tournament in Apollo. He finished 44th in a field of 84 at Chautauqua with a four-day 333.
BC3’s fifth-place finish in 2023 was its highest at the national championship tournament. The college’s volleyball program has competed for an NJCAA Division III national championship four times, most recently as 2024; its men’s basketball program once, in 2023; and its women’s basketball program once, in 2011.
Marquardt is a graduate of Seneca Valley High School; Downing, Worsley, Salata and Ritchie, Butler Area Senior High; Covert, Lincoln in Ellwood City; and Perris, Knoch.
Covert, Downing and Salata are business administration students at BC3. Marquardt is enrolled in the college’s computer information systems-networking and cybersecurity program; Perris, secondary education-social studies option; Ritchie, early childhood education (Pre K-4); and Worsley, business management.
The Pioneers’ women’s squad features Taylor Voloch, a graduate of Moniteau High and a BC3 psychology student.
Captions:
BC3_Covert_Mitchell_100424.jpg: Mitchell Covert, a member of Butler County Community College’s men’s golf team and a 2024 graduate of Lincoln High School in Ellwood City, is shown Saturday, Oct. 4, 2024, at the Western Pennsylvania College Conference championship tournament in Apollo. Covert is projected to battle for the Pioneers’ second spot during a spring season in which BC3 seeks to win a regional title and earn an automatic berth to the national championship tournament.
BC3_Marquardt_Jacob_100424.jpg: Jacob Marquardt, a member of Butler County Community College’s men’s golf team and a graduate of Seneca Valley High School, is shown Saturday, Oct. 4, 2024, at the Western Pennsylvania College Conference championship tournament in Apollo. Marquardt is projected to be the Pioneers’ top golfer during a spring season in which BC3 seeks to win a regional title and earn an automatic berth to the national championship tournament.
BC3_Downing_Xander_100424.jpg: Xander Downing, a member of Butler County Community College’s men’s golf team and a graduate of Butler Area Senior High, is shown Saturday, Oct. 4, 2024, at the Western Pennsylvania College Conference championship tournament in Apollo. Downing is projected to battle for the Pioneers’ second spot during a spring season in which BC3 seeks to win a regional title and earn an automatic berth to the national championship tournament.
BC3_Voloch_Taylor_100424.jpg: Taylor Voloch, a member of Butler County Community College’s women’s golf team and a graduate of Moniteau Junior-Senior High School, is shown Saturday, Oct. 4, 2024, at the Western Pennsylvania College Conference championship tournament in Apollo.
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