MADISON, Wis. – After posting the second-lowest team round of the day, the Nevada men's golf team jumped into third place after two rounds of action at the Badger Invite, hosted by Wisconsin.
"Nice bounce back round today and awesome to have four scores at par or better," said head coach
Jacob Wilner. "We are in the hunt and look forward to an exciting final round tomorrow."
Every member of the Wolf Pack improved their score from round one to round two, most shaving off significant strokes. As a team, Nevada fired a score of 280 which is good for 8-under par on the day. The only other team in the field of 12 to shoot lower than the Pack on Monday was Iowa State, which went 12-under. Heading into Tuesday's final round, Nevada is in the hunt for the team title, just four shots back of Illinois State.
From an individual standpoint, sophomore
Joey Vrzich sits in second place, just one stroke behind leader Lachlan Barker of Iowa State. If Vrzich can leap ahead of Barker and hold off the other competitors tomorrow, he would secure the first individual title of his career. Vrzich carded a 4-under round of 68 on Monday and had a near flawless round. He made five birdies during the round and had just one bogey. He is currently at 6-under par overall.
Nevada had three players record an eagle during the second round,
Stephen Osborne,
Sam Meek and
Tony Gil. Osborne posted the best round one to round two improvement of any scoring member of the team, going from a 77 to a career-low 70 on Monday and jumping 19 spots on the leaderboard. He posted the best back nine score on the team, playing it at 4-under, which included an eagle on the par 5 11
th.
Meek's eagle came on the par 5 16
th and with five birdies throughout his round he finished the day with a round of 75, shaving three strokes off of his Sunday score. Gil, who is entered as an individual, improved his round by an incredible 14 strokes. He went from an 86 in round one to an even par 72 in round two and notched an eagle on No. 2.
The Pack also got solid improvement from freshman
Trey Davis, who is playing in his first collegiate event this week. Davis jumped into the top 20 in the 78-player field by way of a 2-under round of 70 on Monday. He made four birdies on the back nine, including three straight on holes 14-16. Junior
Sam Harned is also comfortably inside the top 20 after shooting an even par round of 72 today. He sits at 1-over par for the tournament.
Nevada concludes its run at the Badger Invite with the final round of play on Tuesday. Live scoring for the entire tournament is available at BirdieFire.com.
Nevada Players
2.
Joey Vrzich – 70-68=138 (-6)
T17.
Sam Harned – 73-72=145 (+1)
T20.
Trey Davis – 76-70=146 (+2)
T25.
Stephen Osborne – 77-70=147 (+3)
T50.
Sam Meek – 78-75=153 (+9)
T66.
Tony Gil (ind.) – 86-72=158 (+14)
