ALBANY, Ga. – Behind seven birdies over two rounds, Anderson senior Reece Coleman fired a two-round, 5-under-par 139 and leads the 8th Annual Hurricane Invitational, while the team is in eighth following opening-day action at the 7,024-yard, par-72 Doublegate Country Club.
"We are in eighth place, but only a handful of shots out of fourth," said Anderson Director of Golf Danny Neal. "We didn't get off to a good start today. The conditions were pretty good in the first round but we couldn't get any momentum. Missed some opportunities to get up and down and didn't putt particularly well. Some other teams took advantage of the conditions and separated themselves a bit. I was pleased how our guys stayed focused and continued to battle even when things weren't going their way. Reece played well and Alejandro continued to play consistently well. We will go into tomorrow with the goal of playing our best golf and passing as many teams as possible."
The two-day, 54-hole event, which is being hosted by Georgia Southwestern, features seven of the top-20 teams in the nation, including four of the top-10 squads.
Sixth-ranked North Georgia leads second place and eighth-ranked Nova Southeastern by three shots, while No. 17 Carson-Newman is two shots further back in third place, with Columbus State in fourth place entering Tuesday's final round. No. 12 Clayton State and No. 14 Tampa are fifth and sixth, respectively, while host Georgia Southwestern is seventh. AU trails the Hurricanes by one stroke, with Flagler two shots behind the Trojans in ninth place.
Florida Southern, Coker, King, Erskine, Valdosta State, West Georgia, Lenoir-Rhyne and North Greenville finished out the 17-team field.
Coleman leads North Georgia's Evan Thompson, Nova Southeastern's Michael Hay and Columbus State's Bernard Meyer by one stroke, with Clayton State's Sam Hershoff and Flagler's Nic Whitaker one shot further back in a tie for fifth place.
AU freshman Alejandro de Castro shares 22nd place, while junior Calahan Keever is in an eight-way tie for 27th. Junior Daniel Coker is tied for 51st, with senior Parker MacDonald rounding out the Trojan contingent in a tie for 74th.
The final round is slated to get underway Tuesday morning.
Notables
• Coleman's 36-hole 139 matched the 21st best two-round score in program history.
8 Anderson 287 292 579
1. Reece Coleman (2) 70 69 139
T22. Alejandro de Castro (3) 70 74 144
T27. Calahan Keever (1) 73 73 146
T51. Daniel Coker (5) 74 76 150
T74. Parker MacDonald 80 76 156
90. Simon Wright (4) 76 D 76
Teams Scores
11 North Georgia 275 294 569
2 Nova Southeastern 282 290 572
3 Carson-Newman 283 291 574
4 Columbus State 288 287 575
5 Clayton State 284 292 576
6 Tampa 288 289 577
7 Ga. Southwestern 282 296 578
8 Anderson 287 292 579
9 Flagler 294 287 581
10 Fla. Southern 285 305 590
11 Coker 298 295 593
12 King 299 296 595
13 Erskine 297 304 601
14 Valdosta State 301 305 606
15 West Georgia 299 310 609
T16 Lenoir-Rhyne 303 307 610
T16 North Greenville 305 305 610
