JONESBORO, Ark. -- Freshman Mitch Thomas lit up the links Tuesday at the Red Wolf Intercollegiate, scoring a career-low 66 at the RidgePointe Country Club in Jonesboro, Ark. His five-under-par round ties best in the Ohio Valley Conference this year.
The 66 is the lowest round for a Tech golfer since Scott Stallings, now on the PGA Tour, matched it in Oct. 2006.
Thomas joins Hunter York of Murray State (Sept. 10) and UT Martin's Tyler Shellnut (Oct. 8) for the best performance of the year in the OVC. The Knoxville native finished with a 77+71+66=214 on the weekend, leading the Golden Eagles and tying for seventh out of the 112 golfers in the tournament.
Fellow freshman Bryce Kendrick improved each round, finishing with a 79+74+73=226 for second on the squad as Tech finished tenth out of 20 teams. He was followed by senior Lee Maxwell and sophomores Lee Whitehead and Maxx Verble.
Tech edged out fellow OVC schools Tennessee State (T-11th), SIU Edwardsville (14th), and Eastern Illinois (20th), while finishing just four strokes behind UT Martin (9th). Austin Peay won the tourney in a landslide, topping second-place Samford by 15 strokes.
The Golden Eagles take a week off before returning to action at the TSU Big Blue Intercollegiate April 15-16 in Nashville.