Men's Golf | April 30

ATHENS, Ala. - The Northern Illinois University men's golf team wrapped up the first round of the Mid-American Conference Men's Golf Championship, held at Canebrake Golf Club, in sixth place with a team score of seven-over par 293, battling blustery conditions for most of the day.

Tommy Dunsire (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) was one of four golfers to finish the day tied for second place at one-under par. After four straight pars to open his round, Dunsire birdied the par-four fifth and par-five seventh to go to two-under par. He followed that up with three straight bogeys to move to one-over par with eight holes to play. Dunsire got back on track with birdies at 12 and 17 to finish with an opening round 71. He is two strokes behind Central Michigan's Jeffrey Andrus who carded a three-under 69 on Sunday.

Zach Place (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) and Campbell Wolf (Mechanicsburg, Pa./ETSU) both carded two-over par scores of 74 and are tied for 16th. Place played the back nine at one-under par with two birdies and an eagle on the par-five 12th. Ben Sluzas (Lockport, Ill./Lockport) and Ian Bruchhauser (Temecula, Calif./Great Oak) are tied for 30th at four-over par with rounds of 76.

"It was a total team effort today in very difficult conditions, which we had to deal with in the final wave of tee times," said head coach John Carlson. "Led by Tommy's outstanding one-under 71, we played a solid back nine to put ourselves in position going into the second round."

The Huskies enter Monday's second round four strokes behind Central Michigan and Bowling Green who are tied atop the leaderboard at three-over par. Miami is in third at five-over with Kent State and Ohio tied for fourth at six-over par.

Play in the second round begins at 8 a.m. Monday morning. The Huskies tee off at 8:50 a.m.

—NIU—