CMS Men's Golf Makes Cut, Enters Third Round in 10th Place at NCAA Championships
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NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team had a solid second round to stand in 10th place after two days of the NCAA Division III Championships, easily staying above the cut line (top 18 teams) to move on to play in the final two rounds on Thursday and Friday at Keene Trace Golf Club.
CMS shot a 302 as a team to stand at 299-302-601 after two days. Illinois Wesleyan leads the team standings at 287-291-578 (+2), four shots ahead of Guilford at 296-286-582, while Aurora and St. Thomas (Minn.) represented the bottom of the cut line at 620, 19 shots behind the Stags.
Sophomore Mason Chiu remains in the hunt for the individual national title, standing at even-par 144 after two rounds, two shots off the lead held by Cameron Willis of Wittenberg and Zane Brownrigg of Methodist. Chiu had a 74 on his second round, tying senior Alex Wrenn for team-high honors, as Wrenn vaulted up 42 places on the individual leaderboard into a tie for 39th at +7.
Sophomore Ken Kong is also currently in the top 50, standing in a tie for 45th place at +8 after two rounds. Junior Austin Long added a 77 on Wednesday, bouncing back from a tough opening round to earn one of the four scoring spots for the Stags.
Wrenn found his groove on his second nine on Wednesday, tallying three birdies in a five-hole span on No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 (after starting his round on No. 10) and closing out with four straight pars to give him some momentum heading into the second half of the tournament. Chiu also had three birdies on the day, his last coming on the par-5 8th hole to get back to even for the tournament, and now has seven birdies in his first two rounds.
With the field whittled down from 42 teams to 18, the Stags will take the course for the third round on Thursday, looking to close the gap between themselves and Illinois Wesleyan at the top to try to give themselves a chance for a comeback title in the final round on Friday.