BC3’s Voltz, Downing bidding for All-American
APOLLO — Butler County Community College golfer Cory Voltz finished second and teammate Xander Downing third in a regional tournament May 13-14 and qualified to compete for All-American status at a national championship in New York.
Voltz’s first-round 74 at the Links at Spring Church in Apollo was his lowest score this spring. He ended with a two-day 151 at the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Region 20 championship. Downing ended with a 156.
Connor Iarussi, Westmoreland County Community College, won the Region 20 individual title with a 145 and the Wolfpack, the team championship with a 656 and as a result of a tiebreaker against the Pioneers.
The top two individual golfers not on the championship team earn a berth in the NJCAA Division III national championship tournament June 4-7 in Chautauqua, N.Y., where Voltz and Downing will seek to win BC3’s eighth and ninth All-American awards in golf.
Golfers with the lowest 18 scores in the four-round tournament earn the prestigious postseason award.
“I think both of them could do very, very well in that tournament,” said Bill Miller, BC3’s golf coach. “There is potential there. They will have to play well. I’m not saying it is going to be anything easy, but if they play the way they are capable of, they could finish in the top 18.”
Downing has averaged a 77 this spring and Voltz, an 80.
“We’re both pretty consistent golfers,” Downing said. “I would say Cory is always around the same number and typically I am the same way. We get two practice rounds before the tournament, so I think we’ll get to know the course pretty well.”
Voltz played on the course during the national championship tournament in 2023, when the Pioneers qualified as the Region 20 team champion and he shot a four-round 330.
“It’s going to benefit him a lot to know that course,” Miller said. “He has been hitting the ball off the tee very well. He’s keeping it in play, hitting it straight, not getting into any trouble off the tee.”
Downing, Miller said, “has had a very good spring. He’s been our solid player. He has been playing very well, hits a long ball and is pretty solid around the greens.”
Downing won the fall season-ending Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference individual championship Oct. 7 and Voltz placed second. Each was selected to the 2023 WPCC all-conference team based on regular-season scoring averages.
Voltz is a graduate of Knoch High School and a computer information systems-networking and cybersecurity student at BC3.
Downing is a graduate of Butler High and a general studies student at BC3.
Ben Read, Sandhills Community College, Pinehurst, N.C., won the 2023 individual national championship tournament with a 277 and against community college golfers from Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Matthew Heighes, a Titusville High graduate, became BC3’s first All-American in golf in 1996. He was followed by Michael Cuscino, Shenango (2008); Stefan Carlsson, Knoch (2014); Thomas Dimun, Butler, and Carlsson (2015); and Troy Loughry, Grove City (2022, 2023).
Westmoreland will compete as a team at the national championship tournament.
Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College
