Golf Falters in Round 2

BLAINE, Wash. --- Northeastern State's bid for a championship took a serious hit in Wednesday's second round. The RiverHawks, which entered the day in third place, limped in with a dismal 311 and fell to 11th overall in the 2009 NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championships at Loomis Trail Golf Club.

It certainly wasn't what head coach Scott Varner had expected heading into the round.

"Six hours ago we were on top of the world and in position to battle for a national championship," said a disappointed Varner via telephone Wednesday night. "We have played so well for so long and hadn't had a bad team round all year until today. We absolutely did today and It came at the worst possible time. That's the painful reality of it."

Barry University, which was tied with Sonoma State for the lead after the first round, now holds a slim one-shot lead over Cal State-San Bernardino at 583 and 584, respectively. Barry carded a six-over 290, while CSUSB fired the low round of the tournament with an impressive two-over 286 to keep within striking distance. Sonoma State and Columbus State are now tied for third at 589 and Georgia College and State rode a 289 to post a 590 and is seven shots back in fifth.

Wayne State (Mich.) standout, Steve Cuzzort, and Gene Webster of CSU-San Bernardino lead the individual race with 36 holes to play at one-under-par 141. Those two have the only sub-par rounds halfway through the event.

Senior Kevin King posted Northeastern State's low round of the day at two-over, 73. He is tied for 36th overall with fellow senior Sam Powell, whose score of 79 matched his highest tournament round of his career.

"Sam hasn't had a 79 since his freshman season," said Varner, "and he had to play even-par on his final nine just to do that. We got off to such a disastrous start and it really snowballed on us."

Blake Walker had a 78, while Josh Boswell turned in an 81 and Jeff Cox had an 82.

"Kevin (King) was really the only one we had that played fairly well," said Varner. "He competed hard, but there was nobody there to help him."

The RiverHawks began the day by playing the back nine first and according to Varner, it is arguably the toughest part of the golf course. As a team, Northeastern State played that section of the event at +29.

With two rounds still to play, Varner believes there are still things to salvage.

"We are going to go out and compete like crazy -- like we have all year -- and see how many teams we can beat. We'll just see how far up the leaderboard we can climb with 36 holes left," he said.

Northeastern State will tee off again on Thursday at noon Pacific time. Click here to view the live scoring courtesy of Golfstat.