COLUMBUS, OH – Battling cold, rainy and windy conditions on Friday, the Northern Illinois University men's golf team finished the first round of the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at the Ohio State University Golf Club's Scarlet Course in seventh place.
 
Paul Schlimm (Shorewood, Ill./St. Francis [Ill.]) was the Huskies' low scorer on the day with a four-over par 75 that put him in a group tied for 14^th. Thomas DeMarco (LaSalle, Ontario, Canada/Morehead State) and Matt Cholod (Courtice, Ontario, Canada/Morehead State) both carded rounds of 76 to tie for 22^nd place. Cholod had a team-high three birdies in his opening round. Freshman Tyler McDowell (Whitby, Ontario, Canada/Brooklin) rounded out the NIU scoring group with a 10-over par 81.
 
"Thomas, Matt and Paul were very good, with solid short games and kept making pars," said head coach Tom Porten. "With Jordan [Less] struggling, Tyler did a good job avoiding big mistakes to help us with a fourth score."
 
The Huskies finished the day +24, two strokes behind Toledo in sixth place. Michigan State leads the tournament at 10-over par with Ohio State in second place at +11.
 
Friday afternoon's second round was washed out. It will be played Saturday morning at 8 a.m. CT as the final round of the tournament.
 
--NIU--