PUEBLO, Colo. – Led by
Joey Kirk's 65, the Aggie men's golf team moved up three spots in the second round of the NCAA Division II West/South Central Super Regional on Friday and are currently in ninth.
Cameron now has just one round to try and play their way into the National Championship in a few weeks as they are 36-hole into the regional in Pueblo. The Aggies shot 281 on in the second round and are sitting at 573, seven strokes back of the top-4 teams.
Kirk tied the program's low-round record on Friday with his 6-under 65. After recording two bogies in the first four holes, the junior hit three straight birdies and then finished out the front nine with back-to-back pars to make the turn at 1-under. Kirk then made birdies on six of the final nine holes including three straight on 14, 15, and 16 to put him in a tie for sixth with a 138 36-hole score.
As a team, Cameron was 11 strokes better than their first-round score. In addition to Kirk's record-tying round, CU got a 70 from freshman
Trevor Mierl and his fellow first-year teammate
Hamish Murray matched his first round 71 and is tied for 25th.
Tyler Kaman added a 75 with
Preston Holmes shooting 77 as the throw-away score for the Aggies.
Through two rounds, the Aggies have just 90 made pars, but are tied for the fourth most birdies in the field with 37. Kirk's performance on Friday put him at the top of the field with 13 under-par holes while Mierl leads CU with 24 pars.
Midwestern State shout up the team leaderboard and is now in the lead with a 557, just a stroke ahead of Colorado Mesa. CSU-Pueblo and St. Mary's make up the rest of the top-4 with Oklahoma Christian, CSU-San Marcos, and Stanislaus State tied for fifth at 567. Colorado Christian (eighth place) is two strokes ahead of CU and West Texas A&M.
A big reason for MSU's jump was the play of Jake Doggett, who shot a 66 on Friday to give him a 135, which is tied with CMU's Dakota Gillman for the individual lead. Gillman's teammate Timmy Cavarno is in third with a 136 and two others are tied for fourth with a 137 ahead of Kirk and four other players.
Cameron will be paired with SSU and CCU in the final round on Saturday with the first group teeing off on hole one at 12 p.m. (CT) and the final group going out at 12:40 p.m. (CT) at the Pueblo Country Club.
