ALPHARETTA, Ga. (Oct. 20, 2012) – Freshman Adrian Meronk (Wroclaw, Poland) continued to pace the ETSU men’s golf team at the U.S. Collegiate Championship on Saturday afternoon as the Buccaneer golfer shot a 1-under-par 71 and moved up 11 spots on the leaderboard.

Meronk – who entered the day in a tie for 22nd – registered five birdies in the round and moved into a four-way tie for 11th with a score of 1-over 145 after 36 holes. The native of Wroclaw, Poland began the day with a birdie on the 542-yard, par-5 first hole and shot 2-under on the front nine, but after bogeying three of the first five holes on the back, Meronk moved to even in the round. Fortunately, after back-to-back bogeys on 13 and 14, Meronk birdied the 401-yard, par-4 15th to move to 1-under for the day.

Meronk is six shots off the lead as Oklahoma State’s Talor Gooch continued to remain atop the leaderboard by carding a 1-under on Saturday and is at 5-under 139 for the tournament. Gooch holds a two shot lead over Auburn’s Michael Johnson and UCLA’s Anton Arboleda.

Meanwhile, No. 9/7 UCLA made a move on the team leaderboard. The Bruins entered the day in a tie for sixth, but after firing a 5-under 283 on Saturday, UCLA claimed the top spot after 36 holes with a score of 4-over 580. UCLA has a two shot advantage over No. 16/12 Georgia Tech, and an eight shot lead against fourth-ranked Southern California and No. 15/20 Oklahoma State.

ETSU recorded a team score of 296 on Saturday and sits 12th with a two-round total of 599 (+23). Overall, the Blue and Gold remain ahead of No. 18/16 Kent State, No. 17 Texas A&M, and Iowa.   

Joining Meronk with a solid afternoon was fellow freshman Gudmundur Kristjansson (Reykjavik, Iceland). After carding an 80 in the opening round, Kristjansson followed things up with an ever-par 72 on Saturday and is tied for 51st with teammate Scott Gibson (Southerness, Scotland) at 8-over 152.

The Bucs tee off at 9:50 a.m. on Sunday and will be paired with UCLA and Kent State.  

The tournament, which is also referred to “The Masters of Collegiate Golf,” features 11 teams ranked within the top-30 of the Golfweek/Sagarin ratings, as well as the top-30 of the Golfstat.com rankings. Individually, 29 players in the field are ranked within the top-100 of the Golfweek rankings, including five inside the top-10

Fans can follow all the scoring live on Golfstat.com or TheUSCC.org, while full recaps with scores will be available at ETSUBucs.com.

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For more information on Buccaneer men’s golf, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men’s golf page.