MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A pair of Mountaineers sit in the top 10 as the West Virginia University golf team completed two rounds of play on Saturday at the Rutherford Intercollegiate, hosted by Penn State at the Blue Course in State College, Pennsylvania.

 

Avery Schneider, who is playing as an individual, is tied for seventh place after 36 holes. Max Sear, a member of WVU’s official lineup for the event, is tied for 10th.

 

West Virginia is tied with Columbia for sixth place at 19 over par. The Mountaineers shot 297-290=587 in the first two rounds of play. Georgetown holds the team lead at one over par with a score of 569, while Ohio is 11 strokes back and in second place at 12 over par with a 580.

 

“The golf course played difficultly today with a lot of rough, firm greens,” WVU coach Sean Covich said. “It was definitely a challenge today. We battled back in round two. Alan (Cooke) and Max played really well in the afternoon round, both shooting under par. Much like at East Carolina, we expect some high winds tomorrow, along with a chance to climb the leaderboard if we post a good number.”

 

Schneider carded scores of 71-72, dropping from fourth place to tie for seventh after two rounds. He sits one over par with a score of 143. After shooting three over with a 74 in the first round, Sear jumped 26 spots after the first round to join Schneider in the top 10. He shot one under in the second round to end the day at 74-70=144 for two over par.

 

Cooke finished the first round at six over par and in 50th place, but used a 70 in the second round to move into the top 25 in a tie for 23rd place. He carded a two-round score of 77-70=147 and is five over par.

 

Chris Williams shot one over in the morning, but struggled at five over in the afternoon round. He finished the day at 72-76=148 to tie for 29th place at six over.

 

Teammate Etienne Papineau is a stroke behind Williams and tied for 34th place. He shot 75-74=149 and is seven over par.

 

Tristan Nicholls enters the third round tied for 58th place at 12 over par. His scorecard showed 76-78=154 after 36 holes.

 

Paired with Penn State and Oakland, WVU will tee off for the third and final round starting at 8:50 a.m. on Sunday. Live scoring is unavailable.