LEWISTON, Ida. – The T-Birds may have entered the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships as the favourites on both the men's and women's sides, but Monday's action proved they certainly have some strong competition and opponents eager to pull an upset.
Playing at the Lewiston Golf & Country Club in Idaho, that home green advantage has helped Lewis-Clark State open up a five-stroke lead over UBC on the men's side. The Warriors have both the top two individual scorers of round one in Adam Lovatt (-3) and Andrea Artusini (-2), while the 'Birds boast a trademark balanced lineup.
Leighton Wright sits tied for fifth at even par, with the highlight of his day being a hole-in-one on the 12th. He was followed closely by
Tim Hachey (+1),
Aneesh Kaura (+2) and
Manpreet Lalh (+2), with
Jake Houston (+4) rounding out the squad. It's a similar sort of position that the T-Birds found themselves in at the Tournament of Knights two weeks ago – where they finished the first round in third place and eight strokes back of the lead – and they'll hope for a similar type of surge in rounds two and three that they had in Portland.
The UBC women, meanwhile, are tied with Oregon Tech at +17 following the opening day of the conference championship. The Warriors (+26) are the only other team within 25 strokes of the Thunderbirds and Owls, with the clear contenders already well-established.
Oregon Tech's Baylee Hodgman (+1) currently holds top spot on the individual leaderboard, with UBC's
Jessica Ng (+3) tied alongside the Owls' Madison Dick for second place.
Sienna Harder (+4) and
Keira Hou (+4) are in a three-way tie for fifth, followed by
Sarah Yang (+6) and
Grace Yao (+6). In all, the T-Birds and Owls boast eight of the top 10 scores from the opening round.
Both Thunderbird squads will tee off at 8:30 a.m. (PT) on Tuesday to begin the second of three rounds in Lewiston.
