Hutchinson CC Sports Information

The Hutchinson Community College men's golf team plays in its first true junior college tournament of the season this week on the course that will play host to the 2021 NJCAA Men's Division I National Championship in May.

The GolfStat No. 1-ranked Blue Dragons will play in the NJCAA National Preview on Monday and Tuesday at Texas Tech University's The Rawls Course. Hutchinson will play 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday with 9 a.m. shotgun starts each day.

The field will be all NJCAA teams, primarily from the state of Texas, including national powers Odessa, McLennan and Ranger. Region VI rival and No. 5-ranked Dodge City will also be in the field. Because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the team field won't be as large as previous National Previews.

Hutchinson's first two tournaments this fall have been playing against primarily NCAA Division II competition. The Blue Dragons tied for third at the CSU-Pueblo Invitational and fourth at the Midwestern State Classic last week.

Four of Hutchinson's six rounds played this fall have been under par, including a school-record 9-under 279 in the final round in Pueblo two weeks ago.

On Wednesday, the Blue Dragons found out that they were ranked No. 1 in the GolfStat poll and that individually 6 of the top 21 players were Hutchinson players. That group included Ben Partridge, Trey McCrae and Harry Crockett ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

This is the third of four fall tournaments for the Blue Dragons. They will close out the fall season next Monday and Tuesday at the Ryan Palmer Classic in Amarillo, Texas.