RENO, Nev. – The No. 16 Alabama men’s golf team rallied in Wednesday’s final round of the NCAA Reno Regional, vaulting four spots up the leaderboard with a 5-under par 283, but ultimately came up just short of qualifying for nationals. The Crimson Tide closed the three-day event in eighth place overall with a 19-over par 883 (304-296-283).

The Reno Regional saw weather wreak havoc throughout the week, forcing teams to wait out weather delays on each of the three rounds, including high winds Monday, snow Tuesday and frost Wednesday.

Jonathan Griz led the Crimson Tide with an 11^th-place finish at 1-under par 215 and was one of only 14 players to close play under par on the challenging Montreux Golf Club course.

From Head Coach Jay Seawell

On battling adverse weather conditions all week

“I’ve never been outside in 70 mph winds and we did that during the practice round. It was different. It was a big distraction with all the starts and stops, not knowing whether we were going to play or not play. We had hail, sleet, wind, snow – all of that played into the tournament. We didn’t handle that first day in the high winds properly. We only played nine holes that day but we got off to a slow start and that’s probably what kept us from advancing through.”

On finishing the Regional with a final round score of 5-under par

“I’m proud of our guys. We could have tucked tail but that’s not what we do as a program. We got off to a great start today. I told the guys let’s go give this thing a go today and go get it. I thought out guys showed a lot of class and showed a lot of competitiveness. We just needed to be that sharp and competitive early on. I was still really proud of the way we fought back today but it was too big of a mountain to climb.

Individual Highlights

• The trio of Jonathan Griz (-4), Nick Gross (-3) and Jones Free (E) all carded par or better rounds in the final round, combining to shoot 7-under par
• Griz paced the Tide and was the only UA golfer to shoot under par, finishing regional action tied for 11^th overall at 2-under par 215 (75-72-68)
• Griz, who led the field in total pars (40) and tied for third in par 4 scoring (-4, 3.87), was one of just 14 golfers in the field to close the 54-hole tournament under par
• Gross vaulted 20 spots on Wednesday and finished tied for 30^th with a 5-over 221 (79-73-69)
• Free also had his best day, improving 15 spots as he tied for 39^th overall with a 225 (76-77-72)
• Connor Brown tied for 47^th overall with a 226 (76-75-75) while Dominic Clemons finished a stroke behind with a 226 (77-76-73) and tied for 54^th overall

Team Highlights

• The Crimson Tide’s final round of 5-under 283 tied for the third-best round of the day 
• BYU (-15) won the Reno Regional, topping No. 9 ranked Virginia (-11) by four strokes
• The regional’s top seed and No. 4-ranked Texas Longhorns (-8) finished third and joined the Cougars and Cavaliers as the only three teams to end play under par
• No. 40 San Diego (+8) and California (+9) secured the final two qualifying spots