The University of Southern Maine men’s golf team made its second straight appearance in the NCAA Division III golf tournament and took a step forward this spring.

The Huskies shot 50-over par as a team for two rounds and missed the cut at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida. A year ago, Southern Maine shot 83-over.

The top 18 teams and top six individuals not on those 18 teams make the cut.

“We would love to win a national championship. I think we’re also trying … to make the cut,” USM coach Brian Bickford, who is also Maine Golf’s executive director said. “So that’s probably a more realistic goal for us. If we can do it as a team, that would be awesome.”

Another goal is for an individual to make the cut. This year, Nokomis grad Alex Grant was USM’s top finisher at 7-over, missing the cut by four strokes.  

A triple-bogey on the 18th hole in the second round ended his tournament.

“So he was a little bit bummed out because of that triple bogey,” Bickford said. “But that doesn’t lessen for us the effort that he made. He’s just come such a long way. I like kids that like to compete. They may not be the best of all time, but they’re gritty. And they don’t give up. Our team kind of models that mentality.”

Jaden Poirier finished 14-over-par, Alex Fournier 15-over, Keenan Buteau 17-over and Owen Moore 19-over.

Back-to-back NCAA appearances have helped with recruiting. The Huskies are adding SMCC transfer Will Farschon (Brunswick), who won the 2023 Class A state championship and helped the Seawolves to a 2025 United States Collegiate Athletic Association’s national championship as the individual runner-up. USM is also adding 2025 Class B champion SJ Welch of Nokomis and Nick Harmon, who played for Scarborough’s Class A state championship team in 2024.

Bowdoin one of few schools to send both tennis teams to Elite Eight

Bowdoin was one of three programs in Division III, along with the University of Chicago and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College, to send their men’s and women’s teams to national quarterfinals.

“It’s great. It’s such a motivating factor,” Bowdoin men’s coach Conor Smith said. “I think our teams have gotten a lot closer because they see each other’s success and they see each other’s commitment and increased dedication to our respective sports. I think we just kind of fed off of each other.”

The men’s team, which is led by NESCAC Player of the Year Mark Kneiss, got knocked out in the quarters by the University of Chicago. Cara Hung led the women’s team, which also lost in the quarterfinals Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

It was the third time in the past four seasons that the Bowdoin men’s teams reached the quarters.

Smith, who led Bowdoin to the national championship in 2016, said getting back to the quarterfinals after getting bounced in the third round in 2025 will help younger players like sophomores Kiran Garapati, Cameron Zia and freshman Simon Catanzaro.

The women’s team made its second straight appearance.

Bowdoin women’s coach Ben Lamanna said he’s looking for a way to get over the hump to get into the final four.

“My main takeaway after losing is that I’ve just got to continue to find a better way to handle playing a little bit better in this round,” Lamanna said. “We get such great momentum from our last NESCAC (regular season) weekend to the NESCAC tournament to rolling into the NCAA tournament regional round. Then the kids have finals, and they’ve got to move out, and then there’s a little break in our momentum.”

Bates rowing heading to national championships

The men’s and women’s rowing teams head to national championships at the end of the month.

Bates won the women’s NESCAC title at the National Invitational Rowing Championship on May 10 in Worcester, Massachussetts, winning a tiebreaker over Tufts.

Tufts won the second varsity eight race, but Bates won the first varsity eight, which was used as the tiebreaker when they both finished with 50 points. The Bobcats’ NESCAC championship earned an automatic NCAA Division III championship berth May 29-30 in Gainesville, Ga.

The Bates men received an at-large bid to the IRA National Championship in Gold River, California on May 29-30. They finished fifth in the first varsity eight grand final at the National Invitational Rowing Championship.