BUTLER TWP — Butler County Community College’s undefeated golf team will become the college’s second athletics squad to compete for a national title since November when the Pioneers tee off in a championship tournament next week in New York.

BC3 is 10-0 this spring. The Pioneers will face up to 100 other golfers on up to 14 other squads in the 72-hole National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national championship tournament June 7-10 in Chautauqua.

The college’s volleyball team finished 18-3 and sixth in the NJCAA Division III national championship tournament in November in Rochester, Minn.

Only in 2009 did two BC3 athletics teams earn berths in NJCAA national championship tournaments within seven months of each other.

BC3 golfers Tanner Hohmann, Liam Kosior, Troy Loughry, Jack Mason and Collin Witouski will also seek individual All-American status at the national championship tournament.

The 18 individual golfers with the lowest scores after four rounds in Chautauqua will receive the prestigious postseason honor.

“To be an All-American, it is something that you dream of when you go to college and play golf,” Kosior said.

The team with the lowest score after four rounds will win the national championship.

“I think we have a great chance, not only to do well as a team, but individually to compete as All-Americans,” Loughry said. “My goal is to become an All-American and win the national championship.”

To win the national championship, the Pioneers have to “shoot under 80 individually every single day,” Kosior said. “If we can do that, stick to our averages, and do what we do best, we will be fine.”

Loughry this spring is averaging a 72; Kosior, a 77; Mason, an 81; Witouski, an 85; and Hohmann, an 87.

“I think this team has the chance to be the best that we have had,” BC3 golf coach Bill Miller said. “Our top golfers have been so consistently strong, and we are fairly deep.”

The Pioneers earned a berth in the national championship tournament by winning the NJCAA Division III Region 20 title May 23.

BC3’s golf team also earned berths in the national championship tournament in June 2009 and finished 12th in 2013, 13th in 2015 and 2019, and ended seventh twice.

Hohmann and Loughry are graduates of Grove City High School; Kosior, of Neshannock; Mason, of Freeport; and Witouski, of Eden Christian Academy.

Loughry won the individual title in the two-round Region 20 tournament with a 2-over-par 146 against players from Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, Md.; Westmoreland County Community College, Youngwood; the Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh; and Pennsylvania Highlands Community College, Johnstown.

Kosior shot a 156 in the Region 20 tournament; Witouski, a 164; Mason, a 165 and Hohmann, a 175.

Loughry on Oct. 2 won the individual title in the two-round Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship tournament with a 3-over-par 147.

BC3’s spring season features NJCAA Division III Region 20 play, the regional tournament and a possible national championship tournament appearance. The WPCC championship concludes the Pioneers’ fall season.

BC3 finished 11-0 in the fall and as the WPCC champion.

Sandhills Community College, Pinehurst, N.C., won the NJCAA Division III national championship in 2021 by one stroke with a team score of 1,197. Sandhills earned a berth in the 2022 national championship tournament by winning the Region 10 title.

Four-round scores of 2021 All-Americans ranged from 291 to 321.

“If you can shoot 320 or below, which is four days of 80, or below, you’re in the running,” Miller said. “Four days is a grind, but I definitely think we have the capability of getting an All-American or two.”

BC3 golfers have earned All-American status five times, most recently in 2015, when Stefan Carlsson placed 15th and Thomas Dimun, 16th at Chautauqua.

In addition to BC3 and Sandhills, the NJCAA Division III national championship tournament will include teams from community colleges in Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York.

BC3’s athletic programs now have earned berths in NJCAA national championship tournaments nine times since 2002.