College Golf Results – Greensboro Leads, Guilford 9th After Day One of Tournament Town Championship Preview

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Greensboro College’s Greg Pappas shot a two-under par 70 to lead the 90-man field in Sunday’s opening round of the Tournament Town Championship Preview at the sun-splashed Grandover Resort. Teammates Nick Peoples shot 73 and John Grimes carded a 74 to help the Pride (295) take a two-shot lead over defending national runner-up Transylvania University (297) in the 18-team field.

Pappas was one-under on both sides of Grandover’s 7,125-yard East Course. The senior made five birdies, including three in his first six holes. He started his round on the 10th hole and made the turn at one-under before a birdie on the par-four first hole dropped him to two-under. He remained there until a bogey four on the seventh hole, but responded with his fifth birdie of the day on eight before wrapping up his day with a par on the ninth hole.

Like Greensboro, Transylvania has three students among the top-10 individuals after 18 holes. Jantzen Latham and Evan Shelley both shot 73 for the Pioneers, which puts them in a six-way tie with Greensboro’s Peoples and Guilford College rookie Tanner Gross, among others. Ben Pfister helped Transylvania with a 74, the day’s 10th-best score.

Illinois Wesleyan University got a 72 from Kenny Wienckowski and a 73 from Gabe Aprati as part of its first-round 298, three strokes off the lead. St. John’s (Minn.) University (301) and Oglethorpe University (302) stand fourth and fifth, respectively.

Whitworth’s Oliver Rudnicki made 16 pars en route to an even-par round of 72, which shares second place with Illinois Wesleyan’s Wienckowski. The pair sits two strokes behind Pappas after 18 holes.

Tournament co-host Guilford College shot 305 in its first round of the season and shares ninth place with Wittenberg University. After Gross’ 73, Travis Tolbert had the Quakers’ second-low round of the day with a 75, which stands 19th among the leaders. Nick Shedd turned in a 78 and shares 53rd place in the field.

Guilford is hosting the tournament in conjunction with the Greensboro Sports Commission as a preview of the 2014 NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships at Grandover. The Tournament Town Preview field boasts 13 schools that competed at the 2013 Division III Championships and 12 of the top-20 teams in the final 2012-13 Golfstat.com Relative Rankings.

The tournament concludes Monday with 18 holes beginning at 8:00 a.m.