GOLF | Gaels in 4th Following First Round in Stockton

Saint Mary's will head to Day 2 of the Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational in fourth place after shooting 4-under in the opening round.

STOCKTON, Calif. — In the opening round of the Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational, Saint Mary's played well to place near the top of the pack as the team was once-again led by sophomore Ethan Farnam.

THE LEADERBOARD
The Gaels sit at fourth in the 16-team field after the first day with a combined score of 4-under. SMC trails the leader, San Jose State, by nine strokes while WCC-rivals No. 16 BYU (9-under) and San Francisco (6-under) remain within arm's reach.

Farnam leads the team with a 3-under total after 18 holes and is ninth in the 89-man field. Michael Slesinski finished one stroke back of Farnam and is tied for 15th while Ethan Ashbrook also shot below par at 1-under and rests tied for 26th.

On top of the individual leaderboard is San Jose State's Kevin Velo who had five birdies on the front nine en route to a 7-under round score. Velo holds a two-stroke lead over BYU's Peter Kuest and South Dakota's Ben Hicks who are tied for second at 5-under.

FIRST ROUND HIGHLIGHTS

Ashbrook began play for Saint Mary's by eagling the first hole on a 398-yard par 4.
Farnam had the second eagle of the day for the Gaels on the par 5 14th hole.
Jeffrey Inouye-Wong shot an even round as an individual and had three birdies.
In addition to Farnam's eagle, Slesinski and Inouye-Wong also birdied 14th.