Blue Raiders in 5th place following first round of SBC Championship

NICEVILLE, Fla. -The Middle Tennessee men's golf team continues to find the Bluewater Bay Resort golf course one of its stiffest challenges. After day one of the Sun Belt Conference Championship, the Blue Raiders are in fifth place in a jammed up field with a 301.

"Every year this golf course causes us problems and it is always the same holes," head coach Johnny Moore said. "We played okay, but we still left a lot of strokes out there. Sometimes we just did not play very smart. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully we can rebound."

North Texas owns the lead after day one with a 290, while New Mexico State and South Alabama are tied for second with a 292. Louisiana-Lafayette is in fourth after shooting a 297.

Blake Bivens, Chris Webb and Kenny Green paced the Blue Raiders as all three carded rounds of 75. Bivens, who opened the front nine with a 39, came in with a team-best 36 on the back to finish strong.

Senior Charlie Gibson had a 76 and is tied for 23rd, while Josh Nelms is tied for 40th after registering an 80.

Second round action will get underway Tuesday morning.

TEAM SCORES
1 North Texas, U. of 290
2 New Mexico State U. 292
South Alabama, U. of 292
4 Louisiana-Lafayette 297
5 Middle Tennessee 301
6 Arkansas-Little Rock 302
7 Western Kentucky U. 306
8 Denver, U. of 308
9 Arkansas State U. 312
New Orleans, U. of 312

MT SCORES
T 15 Blake Bivens 39- 36 75
T 15 Chris Webb 37- 38 75
T 15 Kenny Green 38- 37 75
T 23 Charlie Gibson 39- 37 76
T 40 Josh Nelms 41- 39 80