ABILENE -- This spring's edition of the ACU golf team might be the most talented group seventh-year head coach
Mike Campbell has assembled.
The group will try to erase the bitter taste of a 19th-place finish at last spring's NCAA Division II South / South Central Super Regional. They began working on ridding themselves of that taste last fall with three top-five finishes and another top-10 team finish in four tournaments.
That work in the fall has ACU ranked No. 19 in the nation entering the spring, according to the Golf World / Nike NCAA Division II coaches' poll.
The lynchpin among the four returning golfers is junior
Cyril Bouniol, who is currently ranked No. 43 in the golfstat.com national rankings.
Bouniol has been a constant at the top of the ACU lineup with three top-10 tournament finishes in 2009 as a sophomore. Bouniol set a new career best when he fired an opening-round 68 at the Lone Star Conference Championships where he placed tied for 14th at WinStar Golf Course in Thackerville, Okla.
Also set to play in the Wildcats' top five this spring will be a pair of freshmen in twin brothers Alex and
Adam Carpenter from Little Rock, Ark. Both enjoyed successful pre-college careers on both the American Junior Golf Association and Texas Junior Golf Association tours.
Alex Carpenter enters the spring with a tournament win at the Territory Classic last fall where he fired a final-round 66 to claim the championship. He brings a 71.78 scoring average into the spring as well as a top-10 finish at the Bruce Williams Memorial Invitational.
Adam Carpenter began his ACU career winning the Charles Coody West Texas Intercollegiate after shooting back-to-back rounds of 69 he out-lasted a three-player playoff for the title.
Entering the mix will be juniors
Charles Levitte and transfer
Tyler Sheppard and sophomore Morgan Jonson. Newcommers who will keep competition stiff in the top five include
Kyle Dickerson and
Chris Rodriguez.
Sheppard enters the spring with three top-20 finishes, including a 16th-place finish at The Territory Classic where ACU finished third as a team. Sheppard's scoring average of 73 was good enough to earn him a national rating of 129 by golfstat.com giving the Wildcats four players in the top 200.
Johnson helped the Wildcats in three tournaments during fall recording a scoring average of 76.57. He also has a tournament win from last spring as he participated unattached at the DustDevil Open taking home the title with a three-day score of 214.