It was a sweep for Missouri at the 2022 College Disc Golf National Championship. Photo: Conrad Meyer / PDGA

M-I-Z.

Z-O-U.

You could hear that chant echoing Saturday throughout the North Cove Disc Golf Club, home of the 2022 College Disc Golf National Championship.

Twice.

A few hours after the Missouri women completed a dominant win, the Tiger men followed suite with a victory of their own, catching fire down the stretch to leave Marion, North Carolina the same way they came in, No. 1, and complete the sweep.

Full Coverage of the 2022 College Disc Golf National Championship »

“It means everything,” Quentin Borengasser said. “We’ve been working for this for four year, as a team for three years.

“It’s nice to see it all come together.”

Added Renae Beasley: “It’s just surreal.”

Missouri celebrates the women's team championship in Marion, North Carolina. Photo: Conrad Meyer / PDGA

Our Game

It was wire-to-wire and pedal down the entire week for the Missouri women’s team of Alexis Kerman and Renae Beasley.

They shared the lead after the opening round on Wednesday but after that, it was Mizzou at the top the rest of the way until the final putt dropped.

“It wasn’t a gift for us,” Kerman said. “We had to play, and we played.”

Final Women's Team Standings »

Missouri took off in the second team round, firing off the hot round by six strokes on the River Run course, one of three tracks at North Cove. They maintained during the singles round for a 10-stroke lead entering Friday.

Alexis Kerman lines up a shot on Saturday at North Cove. Photo: Conrad Meyer / PDGA

Then, as action shifted to the tougher Boulders course, they had a perennial college power in Ferris State on their heels.

“They fought back at Boulders, and I know that they knew they needed to, and they did,” Kerman said. “They fought back again today. It was great competition. It kept us on our toes and on our game.”

With their lead trimmed down to five strokes over the defending champions, it started fast for Missouri as Beasley connected on two huge putts in the first three holes. That helped calm them down.

Renae Beasley laced Hole 18 at River Run to seal Missouri's championship. Photo: Conrad Meyer / PDGA

“That just got me excited,” Beasley said. “I was so nervous when I woke up this morning and that just made it go away. It was like, ok, we’re playing disc golf now.”

Added Kerman: “That’s my clutch partner.”

But Tianna Halfaday and Rachel Dupre didn’t go quietly. The grabbed a stroke on 12, another after a Missouri bogey on 13 and made it a three-stroke race with another birdie two on 15.

However, Missouri’s total-team game plan and approach paid off in the end.

“Just amazing,” Kerman said. “I’m so happy and I’m so proud of Renae and I’m proud of what we were able to do here today.

“We kept it together and played our game. That’s what we kept saying, just play our game.”

Ferris State finished second and the Brigham Young team of Devri Tanner and Hannah Hunter rounded out the podium.

Drew Cantrell called Missouri's win 'redemption.' Photo: Conrad Meyer / PDGA

Redemption

With the target on their back, Missouri remained committed to defending their No. 1 ranking and battling together.

That’s what it took for the top-ranked Division I men’s team to leave the 2022 CDGNC with the title, and redemption.

“It feels like redemption,” Drew Cantrell said. “Last year, we were ranked second coming into nationals and my team felt so bad. Being ranked first coming in and then finishing first feels amazing.

“I’ll bring up what Paul Ulibarri said (earlier this week), it was 100 percent commitment. We started off slow and the entire time it was ‘just keep pushing.’ Birdie the next one, hit the next shot.”

Final Men's Division I Standings »

The leaderboard entering Saturday’s final round showed that it was going to come down to the wire, and it certainly did. The Tigers were three strokes back of lead in a logjam of teams all within striking distance of the leader, Illinois State, and one back of second place Appalachian State.

Jared Brabant tapped in the championship-sealing birdie on Saturday. Photo: Conrad Meyer / PDGA

With four holes to play on the Gorge course, the champion could’ve come from three different cards as the leaderboard changed faster than the North Carolina weather, which featured snow, ice, rain, wind and sunshine.

But it was Missouri that heated up.

“We were mostly just saying ‘let’s keep going, we’ve got to keep playing,’” Jared Brabant said. “There’s always more golf left. It was nice to run it down and keep the pedal down.”

After a slow start, the Tigers entered the mix with a string of six-straight birdies on the back nine, highlighted by a huge putt from Noah Free on the tricky 16. On 17, the third-hardest hole of the day, Cantrell drained a bogey-saving putt from distance.

Liberty, Iowa State, Texas and Appalachian State were all in contention at that point, so every stroke was crucial.

The Tigers managed par on 18, a par 4 with a postage-stamp island green that averaged an entire stroke over par on Saturday. Their closest competition succumbed to the finishing hole so it was simple, finish with a par on hole 1, their final hole. Easier said than done as the Gorge’s opening hole was the second hardest of the day.

Except for Cantrell.

With the pressure on, Cantrell absolutely parked the downhill, OB-laden shot for a tap-in birdie, just the fifth of the day, to complete the comeback and leave the National Championship the same way they entered: No. 1.

It set off a passionate celebration, joined by their teammates.

For the second time on Saturday, everyone heard MIZ-ZOU.