MANHATTAN, Kan. - Kansas Sate senior A.J. Elgert (Lincoln, Neb./East High School), one of two individual qualifiers out of last week's Central Regional, is headed to Hot Springs, Va., to compete in the 2004 NCAA Men's Golf Championships.

Elgert, who placed 13th at the Big 12 Championships in Hutchinson, Kan., earned the individual berth by placing 12th at the regional, carding rounds of 72-76-74-222 (+6) on a challenging Kampen Course at Purdue University's Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex.

The four-day, 72-hole championship is being held at The Homestead Resort's Cascades Golf Course (par 70; 6,679 yards) in Hot Springs, Va., June 1-4. Elgert is slated to depart for the championship on Saturday morning. He will play practice rounds on Sunday beginning at 9:10 a.m. (EDT) and Monday starting at 1 p.m. (EDT).

Tee times for the opening round of the championship start at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Elgert, who is paired with Wake Forest's Bill Haas and UNLV's Ryan Moore, has drawn an afternoon tee time for day one and will hit the links at approximately 1 p.m. (EDT) on hole No. 1. The trio is slated to tee off at approximately 9:10 a.m. (EDT) from hole No. 10 for Wednesday's second round.

After 54 holes of play, the field will be cut to the low 15 teams and low six individuals not on one of those teams. Ties for the cut will be broken by a sudden-death playoff.

Elgert is the first the first Kansas State individual to compete at the NCAA Championships since Richard Laing in 1992. He joins Laing and K-State legend Jim Colbert, the 1964 NCAA runner-up, as one of only three Wildcats ever to qualify for an NCAA Championships berth.

His bid to the championship, however, seamed unlikely at best as recently as a month ago. Coming of back-to-back plus-50 place finishes at the Stevinson Ranch and Boilermaker Invitationals, Elgert was left off the team for the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate April 17-18 and was force to qualify for K-State's five-man squad for the Big 12 Championship.

Eventually beating out Josh Persons by one stroke to earn the fifth and final place on the team, Elgert went on to have a stellar conference tournament, recording his highest placing ever at the Big 12 Championships by placing 13th behind rounds of 69-74-78-221 (+11) at Prairie Dunes. His play was instrumental in helping the Wildcats finish fourth and secure their highest Big 12 Championships finish ever. It was also K-State's top finish at a conference tournament since 1969.

During 2003-04, Elgert posted a stroke average of 74.48 over 31 rounds and competed in 11 events. He carded five top-20 finishes on the year, including tying for seventh at the Jim Hackler Invitational (March 8-9) and ninth at the Jim Colbert Intercollegiate (Sept. 29-30).

For his career, the Lincoln, Neb., native owns 23 collegiate top-20 finishes. In amateur play, Elgert won the 2002 Nebraska Match Play title at Indian Creek Golf Course. He also was the 2000 Nebraska Junior Amateur Champion and the 1999 Co-Junior Amateur Golfer of the Year.

Results from each day's play of the championship are expected to be available by 7 p.m. (CDT). Media and fans will also be able to follow the tournament hole-by-hole as host school Virginia Tech will be providing live scoring throughout the championship via the Internet at www.golfstat.com.