Golfstat Results

ALBUQUERQUE -- Despite playing a golfer short due to illness, the UTA men's golf team improved by two places in the afternoon round to finish 10th after the first day of competition at the 63rd William H. Tucker Intercollegiate at the UNM Championship Course.

Following today's first two rounds of the 54-hole event, the Mavericks finished with a 22-over par 598. 16 of the field's 17 teams registered scores above par.

UNLV leads the event at 1-under par 575 with the University of Washington sitting six strokes behind in second place. UTA is two strokes ahead of Denver, four in front of the University of Nevada and five ahead of Washington State.

The Mavericks were without senior Jake Greenspoon in the afternoon's second round after the Houston native withdrew due to illness. His 5-over par 77 in the morning's round counted toward the team total, but only the four remaining golfers' scores counted in the afternoon.

UTA graduate transfer Nick Thornton (Boerne, Texas) was the Mavericks' top finisher today, firing rounds of 74-72 for a 2-over par 146. He sits in a tie for 14th place heading into tomorrow's final round.

Arizona's George Cunningham leads the medalist competition after the first day with rounds of 70-69 for a 5-under par 139. He leads UNLV's Shintaro Ban by one stroke. The pair were two of only five of the 100 golfers in the field to register a score under par.

After going 6-over par in his first 11 holes, Thornton turned things around. Starting with a birdie on No. 15, he proceeded to go four under to close out the morning round. In the afternoon, he was 2-over heading into his final three holes, but birdied holes 1 and 2 to finish at even par.

Junior Tanner Gore (El Paso, Texas), carded rounds of 72-75 and finished the day in a tie for 19th place at 3-over par. Like Thornton, he began the day slowly with two double bogeys, a bogey and a par on his first four holes. But, he went 2-under the rest of the way to finish at even par for the round.

Senior Aaron Guanlao (Haslet, Texas) turned in scores of 78-73 and is in a tie for 48th place in the 100-golfer field at 7-over par. Freshman Paul Gonzalez (Waxahachie, Texas) registered a 76-79 to finish at 11-over for the day and is in a tie for 73rd place. He did, however, have the distinction of scoring two of the entire tournament field's nine eagles of the day. He made a 2 on the 376-yard, par 4 fourth hole in morning, then did the same on the 360-yard par 5 15th hole in the afternoon.

Following the Tucker Intercollegiate, UTA returns to action Oct. 9-10 at the Bayou City Collegiate Classic at Golfcrest Country Club in Pearland, Texas. The team will also play in the Little Rock Intercollegiate on Oct. 23-24 before concluding its fall season at the Saint Mary's Invitational on Nov. 6-8 at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif.

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