Crusaders in 1st After 36 Holes at SCAC Championship; Trio within Top 4 Individually in Standings

Crusaders in 1st After 36 Holes at SCAC Championship; Trio within Top 4 Individually in Standings

(Photo courtesy of SCACsports.com)

BLANCO, Texas – The University of Dallas men's golf team started off strong in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship taking a first-place finish in the team standings with a 590 through 36 holes of play on Monday on Vaaler Creek Golf Club.

The Crusaders totaled a 295 in both rounds to shoot +14 over par and lead by seven strokes over Texas Lutheran University (597), who are second. Southwestern University rounds out the top three teams with a 606 (301, 305). Dallas entered 43rd in the rankings, and are are ahead of the No. 7 Southwestern, No. 25 Texas Lutheran, and No. 41 Schreiner University.

Emilio Montalvo (Mexico City, Mexico) is the top Dallas individual and second overall with a 144, as he scored even on the Par 72 both rounds.

Jacob Wade (Magnolia, Texas), the team-leader in the 2018 SCAC Championship, carded a 71 to start the first 18 holes in a tie for first. He dipped to fourth in the individual standings after a 76 in the second round put him at 147.

Erik Hamm (Brentwood, Tenn.), seeded fourth, used a 71 to match the lowest round by UD plyer on the day and propel him to third with a 146. He carded a 75 for a solid result in the opening round.

Robby Evans (Flower Mound, Texas) sliced two strokes from his first round to post a 154 (78, 76). Seth McNeill (Plano, Texas) logged a 156 (77, 78) to keep the Crusaders in the top-20 with all five competitors.

Evans did earn one of the four Eagles by an SCAC golfer on the day in the first round. Montalvo posted four Birdies each round and is tied atop the leaderboard for that category with eight in that category with Schreiner's Jason Lopez and TLU's Colin Uecker. McNeill and Hamm follow with seven Birdies, while Wade has contributed six to tie with four others. Hamm and Evans are tied with Jake Bell from Schreiner with a 2.88 (-1) Par 3 Scoring. Montalvo and Wade are the leaders in Par 4 Scoring with a 4.05 (+1) and 4.10 (+2) respective clips.

Uecker notched the lowest round score of the tournament with a 70 in the second round for a 141 overall. He leads the individual standings. The next trio of spots are occupied by Crusaders, who are bidding for a historic finish on Tuesday.

Individual leaderboard

Dallas has been part of the SCAC since 2012, and the highest finish has been fourth in 2018, when head coach Garrett Smith was at the helm in his 2nd full season. Hamm and Wade played at Vaaler Creek Golf Club in the Conference Championship in 2017. Hamm, Wade, and Evans were in the league tournament last season, while Montalvo and McNeill made SCAC Championship debuts. Montalvo is coming off a nice performance at the Rhodes College Spring Invitational that landed him SCAC Golfer of the Week honors a week ago.


UP NEXT

A third and final round of 18 holes will conclude the SCAC Championship on Tuesday. Tee off is at 8 a.m. on a par-72, 6,864-yard layout.

To follow along with live scoring throughout the final round, click here for the official website of the 2019 SCAC Men's and Women's Golf Championships.