Charleston, W. Va. - The Wheeling University Men's Golf team was back at it from Charleston, West Virginia, as they kicked off day one of the Stonewall Classic. After a slow start, the Cardinals dropped 16 strokes off their team score in round two, jumping five spots in the team standings to finish 5th after two rounds. They currently sit third among their Mountain East Conference (MEC) competition in the field and look to continue climbing the ladder heading into Tuesday's third round.
Leading the team was Graduate Student Sean Dobson, who sits tied for 2nd in the field shooting 144 (E) between the two rounds. After leading the Cardinals last time out, Dobson got off to another hot start at Stonewall, hitting par on the first seven holes of round one. He would add just one stroke to his score on the front nine, and sat at +1 at the bend. He would hit two bogies on the back nine, but countered those with a pair of birdies and shot an even par to bring his round one score to 73. As he headed to the second round, the success on the front nine continued as he shot par on eight of the nine holes. The one change was a biride on hole seven, and he finished _1 heading to the back nine. He would add two more birdies on that back nine, but doubled on hole 17 to bring his score to even and sit at –1 for the round. As he heads into day three, Dobson looks to continue his strong play and battle for the top spot in the field.
It was a big second round for the team, and leading that push was Zak Collins, who dropped 12 strokes from round one to round two. After shooting an 88 in round one, Collins bounced back in a big way on round two, sitting even through three holes thanks to a birdie. He added three more pars and finished +3 in the front nine. As he headed to the back nine, he would hit birdie on two of the first three holes, and would add just two more strokes to his score, he would shoot +1 on the back nine and jumped 22 spots in the individual standings to finish second on the team. The second Cardinal to crack the top 40 was graduate student Troy Loughry, who finished 37th at 155. Like Collins, he would take seven strokes off his round two score, thanks to a big bounce back on the back nine. After shooting +2 on the front nine, Loughry would shoot two birdies on the back, finishing even. His 74 was the second lowest score on the team during the second round as he continues his push up the individual leaderboard.
Rounding out the top 40 Cardinals was Lodin Femoen, who finished 37th shooting a two-round score of 154. He shot sub-80 in each of the two rounds, putting together a 79 in round one and dropping four strokes to a 75 in round two. After shooting a birdie on hole 13 in round one, he would add four more in the second round, including three on the back nine, to round out a strong day. The final two golfers on the day who did not factor into the team score were Elias Ekenes-Fosback and Luke Wennberg. Wennberg would just crack the top 50 of the event, finishing tied for 50th with a 158, and had the second lowest score on the team in round one. He shot a 74 (+2) and had three birdies in the round to round out his season-best round. Ekenes-Fosback would round out the day shooting a 165 and finishing 70th overall. Like Wennberg, Ekenes-Fosback also had a strong first round, shooting a 79, before shooting 86 in the final round of the day.
The Wheeling University Men's Golf team returns to action for day two of the Stonewall Invitational with tee times beginning at around 9 AM.
