PORTLAND, Ore. – The Western Washington University men's golf team is in third place out of 14 teams after the first two rounds of the Concordia Invitational played Monday at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club.

 

The No. 23 nationally-ranked Vikings held the first-round lead as the only team in the tournament to shoot under par with a morning round of 2-under-par 282 on the par 71 layout in Portland. Western slipped to 3^rd place in the field with an afternoon round of 5-over-par 289 for a 36-hole total of 3-over-par 571.

 

Tournament host Concordia and No. 8 Simon Fraser are the co-leaders at 1-under-par 567, with both teams recording matching rounds of 6-over-par 290 in the morning round and 7-under-par 277 in the afternoon. WWU is in 3^rd place, three shots in front of Colorado-Colorado Springs (+6, 574) and Westminster College (+6, 574). Colorado Springs recorded an 11-under-par 273 in the second round for the low team score of the day.

 

"It was an up and down day for the Vikings," said WWU head coach Luke Bennett. "We had a good morning round and the guys gave it their best, we just dropped a few shots towards the end of both rounds. We'll go out there tomorrow looking to climb the leaderboard and put up a good fight down here in Portland."

 

The Vikings have three players in the top 20 in the tournament field and are led by sophomore Jordan Lee (Tacoma, WA/Bellarmine Prep), who is tied for 7^th place at even-par 142. The defending individual champion at the Concordia Invitational turned in rounds of 1-over-par 72 in the morning and 1-under-par 70 in the afternoon.

 

Sophomore Aidan Thain (Bellevue, WA/Sammamish/Colorado Mesa) and freshman Drew Halili (Port Orchard, WA/South Kitsap) are tied for 10^th place in the 77-player field at 1-over-par 143. Both players turned in morning rounds of even-par 71 in the morning and 1-over-par 72 in the afternoon. Thain is tied for 6^th in the field with 24 pars while Halili was amongst the tournament leaders playing the Columbia Edgewater par 3 holes at 3-under par.

 

Two-time GNAC Player of the Week Ethan Casto (Snohomish, WA) is tied for 15^th at 2-over-par 144. After finishing the first round near the top of the leaderboard with a 3-under-par 68 to start the day, Casto recorded his first over-par round (out of eight rounds this season) with a 5-over-par 76 in the afternoon. 

 

Redshirt freshman Cody Oakes (Arlington, WA) is at 5-over-par 147 for the tournament with rounds of 72 and 75 in his first time in the starting lineup in his collegiate career. He is tied for 26^th place as all five of WWU's golfer finished the first day in the top 30.

 

Simon Fraser's Aidan Goodfellow and Julius Kreutzer of Academy of Art are tied for individual medalist honors at 6-under-par 136. Goodfellow shot a tournament-low 6-under-par 65 in the afternoon round after an even-par 71 in the morning..

 

The final 18 holes of the tournament begins Tuesday morning with an 8:00 am shotgun start. The Vikings will be paired with tournament co-leaders and GNAC rivals Concordia and Simon Fraser, and Colorado-Colorado Springs. 

 

Here is a look at the first and second round results from Monday's competition at the Concordia Invitational played on the par 71 Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland. Tuesday's final round is scheduled to start teeing off at 8 am. The tournament Live Leaderboard can be tracked via Golfstat.com.

 

 

Fans can follow the WWU Men's Golf program online at WWUVikings.com/MGolf, and via social media on Twitter (@WWUGolf), Instagram (@wwugolf) and Facebook (@WWUMGolf).

 

The WWU men's golf team has an incredible streak of advancing to the NCAA Championships in each of the 21 seasons the program has competed at the NCAA Division II level dating back to the 1998-99 season, including a 3^rd-place finish at the 2013 national championship. The program has produced 17 All-Americans and has won 9 of 12 Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships since the tournament debuted in 2008, including the 2019 title. The Vikings have also featured the GNAC Championships individual medalist in 8 of 12 tournaments, including 2018 champion Ethan Casto and 2019 champion Brody Bonfilio.