CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M's Wyatt Provence put on a show the last three days in Winter Garden, Florida as the freshman from Amarillo fired rounds of 67, 66 and 68 for a 201 (-12) to claim the NCAA Division II National Championship by five strokes with the Buffs advancing to Match Play tomorrow at the Orange County National Golf Center (Par 71 – 7,419 Yards) during the DII Spring Festival.
 
Provence becomes the first player in program history to win a National Title and just the fifth player in Lone Star Conference history to finish atop of the individual leaderboard: Jeev Singh (Abilene Christian, 1993), Dax Johnston (Central Oklahoma, 1996), Jamie Amoretti (St. Mary's, 2006), Cyril Bouniol (Abilene Christian, 2010)
 
The 201 by Provence is the lowest three-round score in Division II Championship history as the Randall product registered five birdies on Thursday afternoon with three of them coming on the back-nine to pull away for a five-stroke win over UCO's Jordan Wilson and Nathan Kraynyk of Ferris State (206, -7).
 
Provence was named the 2024 Arnold Palmer National Individual Champion Award while also being named a First Team PING All-American to go along with claiming the 2024 NCAA Division II Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award.
 
It marks the first time in program history that the Buffs have advanced to the Match Play portion of the event (began in 2011) as WT finished 17^th overall during their only other trip to the National Championships back in 2015.
 
West Florida shot a 277 (-7) on Thursday to finish with a one-stroke lead (-14, 838) over Oklahoma Christian (-13, 839) followed by Central Oklahoma and Coker (-6, 846) tied for third overall.
 
The Buffs turn their attention to the National Quarterfinals as they are the eight seed, taking on the top seeded Argonauts of West Florida during Medal Match Play beginning tomorrow morning in Winter Garden, that winner will advance to the National Semifinals tomorrow afternoon with the Finals taking place on Saturday.
 
The quarterfinal round begins for the Buffs at 7:20 a.m. CT. This is a "Medal Match" event. Each match is scored by the cumulative number of strokes won by rather than the number of holes won. Up 3 means that the player is up by 3 strokes, not 3 holes. The player up by the most strokes after 18 holes wins the match.
 
Quarterfinal Pairings
7:20 a.m. – Pepe De La Concepción Quílez (WT) vs. Mason Minkel (UWF)
7:30 a.m. – Pablo Rebolleda (WT) vs. Fabian Wennerlof (UWF)
7:40 a.m. – Luis Palomo (WT) vs. TJ Thompson (UWF)
7:50 a.m. – Santiago Caride (WT) vs. Per Ekelund (UWF)
8:00 a.m. – Wyatt Provence (WT) vs. Cooper Tendick (UWF)
 
Buffs on the Leaderboard
1. Wyatt Provence – 67-66-69 - 201 (-12)
T22. Luis Palomo – 72-72-69 - 213 (E)
T77. Santiago Caride – 76-74-72 – 222 (+9)
T77. Pepe De La Concepción Quílez – 71-73-78 – 222 (+9)
T89. Jose Rozas – 75-70-79 – 224 (+11)