Mississippi State
NCAA East Regional
Bulldog Golfers Tied For Fourth After First Round Of NCAA East Regional
May 15, 2008 | Men's Golf
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Seeking the program's third NCAA Championship appearance, the Mississippi State men's golf squad shot a 278 in the first round of the NCAA East Regional Thursday at the Council Fire Golf Club in Chattanooga, Tenn., and stand in a tie for fourth in the 27 team field. The 278 team score was the best round by a Bulldog team in NCAA Regional play.
"We are all very pleased with the way we played today," said MSU head coach Clay Homan. "We were in third most of the day and had a good team effort all day."
Leading the charge in the first round was junior Josh Bevell. The Southaven, Miss., native shot a 5-under, 66 and is tied for third in the individual standings, just one shot off the leaders. Thursday's round was a career best for Bevell, besting the 67 he shot earlier this season in the Magnolia Cup. Junior Noah Goldman fired a first-round 68 and is in a tie for 15th after finishing with a 33 on the back nine.
"The round that Josh put together gave us a real boost," commented Homan. "We knew we would need one of the guys to step up and have a low round and he did just that. Noah also helped us out with his 68 today. Considering we played in a steady rain all day and probably faced the worst conditions in the field because of our late start, I was very proud of our performance."
Senior Josh Oller, State's top finisher in the SEC Championship, is tied for 33rd after a first-round 70. Juniors Carlos Sainz and Matt Fast shot rounds of 74 and 75 respectively to close out scoring for the Bulldogs.
Georgia, the nation's top-ranked team, concluded its first round with a 265 and leads the field by eight strokes. Augusta State is second followed by SMU. State and Middle Tennessee State round out the top five. Augusta State's Henrik Norlander and Georgia's Hudson Swafford both shot rounds of 65 as they lead by a stroke in the individual standings.
State will begin second round play Friday morning at 7:35 a.m. CT on hole #10. Sunday's final round will get underway at 6 a.m. CT. The top 10 teams will advance to the NCAA Championship May 28-31 at the Kampen Course at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Indiana.
First Round Results-NCAA East Regional
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - 5/15/08
1. Georgia 265, -19; 2. Augusta State 273, -11; 3. SMU 276, -8; T4. Mississippi St. U. 278, -6; T4. Middle Tennessee St. 278, -6; 6. North Carolina State 279, -5; 7. New Mexico State U. 280, -4; T8. Virginia Tech 281, -3; T8. Auburn 281, -3; T8. Charlotte 281, -3; T11. Colorado State Univ. 282, -2; T11. Tennessee-Chattanooga 282, -2; 13. UC-Irvine 283, -1; T14. Coastal Carolina 285, +1; T14. Michigan State 285, +1; T14. Western Carolina U. 285, +1; T17. Duke University 286, +2; T17. Virginia, U. of 286, +2; T17. East Tennessee St. 286, +2; T20. Georgia State Univ. 287, +3; T20. UAB 287, +3; 22. South Carolina 288, +4; 23. Memphis, U. of 289, +5; T24. Western Illinois U. 293, +9; T24. North Florida, U. of 293, +9; T24. Mississippi, U. of 293, +9; 27. Jackson State Univ. 302, +18.
MSU INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
t3. Josh Bevell 66
t15. Noah Goldman 68
t33. Josh Oller 70
t96. Carlos Sainz 74
t107. Matt Fast 75
