Valparaiso University men’s golf fifth-year senior Caleb VanArragon (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) is ranked No. 36 nationally as Clippd published its first edition of new college golf rankings for the NCAA on Wednesday.

VanArragon, who becomes the first golfer in program history to be ranked in the top 50 nationally, put together a stellar fall for the Beacons and owns a 68.83 scoring average after four fall tournaments. He earned medalist honors in half of his four fall events, starting the campaign with back-to-back tournament wins.

VanArragon took individual medalist honors in a competitive, 120-player field at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invite hosted by Air Force from Sept. 10-13 with a 54-hole score of 203 (-13; 67-67-69).  He followed that up by defending Valpo’s home course in resounding fashion with a program-record 54-hole tournament performance of 201 (-15; 66-67-68) to win the 63-player Valpo Fall Invitational on Sept. 18-19. He was narrowly outside the top-10 at t-11 with a 212 (-4) in the competitive Mark Simpson Colorado Invite from Oct. 2-3 before rounding out his spring with a 210 (-6) at the Monterrey Collegiate Classic on Oct. 27-28 in Monterrey, Mexico.

VanArragon golfed par or better in 10 of his 12 rounds this fall. His career honors include 2023 NCAA Regional Qualifier (at-large), 2022-23 CSC At-Large First Team Academic All-American, three-time MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, four-time First Team All-MVC and three-time MVC Elite 17 Award winner. He was twice named the Missouri Valley Conference Golfer of the Week this fall, tying a league record for career MVC weekly awards with 15.