Huskies In Eighth At Alister MacKenzie Invitational

FAIRFAX, Calif. – The University of Washington men's golf team sits in eighth place after the first day of the Alister MacKenzie Invitational, hosted by Cal at the Meadow Club. With a 36-hole team score of 552 (-16), four of the five Huskies competing currently sit under par.

"Overall I feel we played a lot better than our scores, but again we keep making a lot of foolish mistakes and shooting ourselves in the foot," head coach Alan Murray said. "Until we get better at finishing our rounds and becoming more ruthless with our opportunities, we are going to fall short of what we are trying to achieve. We saw some encouraging signs but we need to make things happen."

With 12 of the 15 teams shooting under-par scores over the first 36 holes, the par 71 course saw a scoring average of 70.31 between all 159 rounds scored.

Senior Corey Pereira led the Huskies, carding a 64 (-7) in the opening round, the lowest of his career. After shooting a 70 in the second round, the Cameron Park, Calif. native is tied for eighth overall with a 134 (-8) on the day. His 11 birdies is tied for eighth-best.

"Corey played superb and showed how important he is to us," Murray said.

Washington recorded the seventh best round of the day (273, -11) to open the tournament thanks to strong play by Pereira (64, -7), freshman Sam Warkentin (67, -4) and junior Frank Garber (69, -2). The Huskies followed it up with a 279 (-5) in the second round, led by junior Jordan Lu (68, -3), Pereria (70, -1) and freshman Henry Lee (70, -1). The Huskies are eight strokes out of a first place tie with St. Mary's and Pepperdine.

Three additional Husky golfers currently rank within the top 40 of the tournament field: Warkentin (T-22), junior Frank Garber (T-33) and Lu (T-37).

"Sam had an impressive 67-71 day and was pretty steady, while Frank had a really good 69 in the first round after a tough start and had a solid even par round in the afternoon," Murray said. "Jordan bounced back with a very good 68 in the afternoon and Henry had a very steady 70 in the afternoon."

As a team, Washington tied for first among the tournament field with 113 pars and tied for eighth with 42 birdies through the first two rounds of play.

Washington golfers begin the third and final round of the tournament tomorrow (Oct. 11) morning between 8 and 8:40 a.m. PT. The Huskies will be paired with players from Minnesota, BYU, and North Carolina State.

Results:

8	Washington	273	279	E	-16
T8	Corey Pereira (1)	64	70	E (0)	-8
T22	Sam Warkentin (3)	67	71	E (0)	-4
T33	Frank Garber (2)	69	71	E (0)	-2
T37	Jordan Lu (5)	73	68	E (0)	-1
T52	Henry Lee (4)	73	70	E (0)	+1