CMS Men's Golf Moves Into Top 10 After Second Day of NCAA Championships

GolfStat Scoring

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's golf team shot -3 as a team on the second day of the NCAA Division III Championships on Wednesday, moving up from 15th place to ninth at the midway point of the tournament at the Keene Trace Golf Club.

After its 285 on Wednesday, which tied for the third-best round in the field, the Stags stand at +5, just eight shots back of co-leaders Methodist and Piedmont, which are the only teams in the red through 36 holes. Carnegie Mellon, Christopher Newport, and Saint John's (Minn.) are all in a three-way tie for third at +1.

Kevin Jiang, who had a hole-in-one in his first round on Tuesday, followed up with a 69 (-3) for the Stags, the team's low round of the day. Jiang had five birdies overall on the day, including two in his final four holes. Jiang is now even par for the tournament, which ties him for 21st. 

Joshua Kwon also was in the red on Wednesday with a -2 (70), which included a stretch of four birdies in five holes (No. 5, 7, 8 and 9 after beginning the day on No. 12). Kwon is now -1 for the tournament, the low score on the team, which puts him in a tie for 14th, just three shots off the lead held by four players. 

Vikram Chatterjee and Yuefeng (Michael) Ma both were +1 to account for the other two scores for the Stags, as Ma closed out with two birdies on his final three holes, and Chatterjee had a birdie on his 17th, to help CMS make a late run up the leaderboard. 

CMS will be back in action for the third round on Thursday morning, hoping to put itself in contention for Friday's final round.