MALIBU, California " Pepperdine sophomore Sahith Theegala has been named one of 30 semifinalists for the Jack Nicklaus Award, given to the nation's top player in Division I men's golf.

Theegala (Chino Hills, Calif./Diamond Bar HS) currently ranks 18th nationally by Golfstat. He has a team-best 71.03 scoring average, which is on pace to be the fourth-best single-season mark in program history. In 12 tournaments, he has four top-10 and 10 top-20 results, including a victory at the Southwestern Invitational in February. He's posted 16 below-par rounds out of 36 total.

He was named the West Coast Conference's co-Player of the Year for 2017, and to the All-WCC first team for the second straight season. He was also the WCC Golfer of the Month for both February and March.

Theegala's 71.04 career average is on pace to be #1 all-time at Pepperdine, and he already ranks tied for ninth all-time in below-par rounds (33) after less than two years.

The finalists will be named on May 25 and the award will be presented on June 1.

The Waves will find out on Thursday (May 4) where they are headed for NCAA Regional play. The announcement will be made on the Golf Channel at 9 a.m.

Jack Nicklaus Award semifinalists: Dawson Armstrong (Lipscomb), Sam Burns (LSU), Cameron Champ (Texas A&M), Wyndham Clark (Oregon), Sean Crocker (USC), Cristobal Del Solar (Florida State), Jared du Toit (Arizona State), Doug Ghim (Texas), Nick Hardy (Illinois), Rico Hoey (USC), Sam Horsfield (Florida), Theo Humphrey (Vanderbilt), Patrick Martin (Vanderbilt), Maverick McNealy (Stanford), Dylan Meyer (Illinois), Collin Morikawa (California), Kyle Mueller (Michigan), John Oda (UNLV), Zachary Olsen (Oklahoma State), Chandler Phillips (Texas A&M), Doc Redman (Clemson), Matthias Schwab (Vanderbilt), Greyson Sigg (Georgia), Jimmy Stanger (Virginia), Sahith Theegala (Pepperdine), Braden Thornberry (Mississippi), Alejandro Tosti (Florida), Dylan Wu (Northwestern), Norman Xiong (Oregon), Will Zalatoris (Wake Forest).