GREENSBORO, N.C. – Mount St. Mary's continued to participate in the program's first-ever NCAA Championships at the NCAA East Regional on Friday. The Mount dropped to 14th place after the second round.
Devin O'Grady (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) fuels the Mount with a 48th-place standing and a two-round score of 153 while Ryan Triller (Pylesville, Md./North Harford) (66th place, 157), Tonny Aizpun (Barcelona, Spain/ Lycee Francais De Barcelone) (68th place, 158), Danny Michalek (Mount Airy, Md./Mount St. Joseph) (70th place, 160) and Kevin Ellison (75th place, 174) rounded out the Mountaineers' five competitors.
O'Grady posted a one over on the back nine to start his second round. After recording four bogeys on Thursday on the final nine holes, O'Grady started his second round with a double bogey and bogey on 10 and 11, but then shot two under in the last seven holes thanks to birdies on 13 and 18 to make the turn at one over. The sophomore went three over on the final nine holes on the day after posting birdies on two and five, bogeys on three, seven and nine and a double bogey on four to finish with a 76 for the day and a 153 for the first two rounds, 16 strokes behind the current leader.
Triller started the second round with a bogey, but came back with a birdie on 11 to get back to even. The freshman then double bogeyed 14 and bogeyed 17 to post a three-over first nine holes on Friday. Triller finished his day with a six over on the final nine holes with bogeys on one, two, five, six, seven and eight to post an 81 on the afternoon and a 157 in the two days.
Aizpun, who was two over on the back nine on Thursday, finished his day yesterday with birdies on 17 and 18, but did not have the same luck in the second round. Aizpun was even after three holes on the day after bogeying No. 11 and coming back with a birdie on 12, but then bogeyed 15, 17 and double bogeyed 18 to make the turn at four over. The sophomore birdied four, but bogeyed three and nine along with double bogeys on one and five to finish the last nine holes on the day with a five over and a nine-over 81 for the day and a 158 after 36 holes.
Michalek also improved his score from holes 10-18 on Tuesday. The senior was six over yesterday on the same nine holes, but bogeyed 11 and 15 before registering a birdie on 18 to make the turn at one over. Michalek then posted a six over on the final nine holes of the day after recording bogeys on two, three, and nine along with a double bogey to notch the second-best round of the day at 79 and card a 160 for the two days.
For the second-straight day, Ellison had a tough first nine holes and made the turn at seven over after three pars, five bogeys and a double bogey. The sophomore settled down on his final nine holes after posting a triple bogey on the No. 1 hole and then strung together six pars before ending the round with a two bogeys for a round of 84 and a two-day score of 174.
Liberty leads the three-day event with a score of 576, six strokes ahead of SMU (582) while Florida (586), Auburn (588), Lamar (588), Texas Tech (589), Tulsa (590), Indiana (591), Duke (592), UNLV (597), Louisiana-Lafayette (600), Charlotte (607), George Washington (622) and the Mount (628) round out the 14-team region.
The Mount will compete in the NCAA East Regional final round on Saturday to conclude its season. The squad will tee off on No. 10 for the second-straight day. Eillison will be the first to hit the tee at 9:10 a.m. before Michalek (9:20 a.m.), Aizpun (9:30 p.m.), Triller (9:40 a.m.) and O'Grady (9:50 a.m.) will follow to tee off for the final time this season.
