ST. GEORGE, UTAH - Led by a 2-under 70 from freshman Alex Ellis (Austin, Texas) the College of Charleston men's golf team finished day one of two in third-place Monday at the Pat Hicks Thunderbird Invitational. The Cougars will play the final 18 holes of the tournament tomorrow morning.

Dixie State leads the tournament with a total score of 3-under 285 with Utah Valley in second at 286 and the Cougars in third with an even-par team score of 288. One person from each school will play with each other in a 9:00a.m. shotgun start Tuesday morning.

"You never get upset shooting even-par," Head Coach Mark McEntire said. "You can tell we have not played much competition in the past few months. We were a bit rusty in the middle of the round, but we look forward to tomorrow and the chance to win a golf tournament."

Ellis is in seventh-place going into the final round and was one of only 11 players in the tournament to shoot under-par. McEntire said he was happy with the way his freshman played and could have shot even better had it not been for a couple bad breaks.

The Cougars got off to a fast start with eagle, eagle and birdie on the par-5 seventh hole. For the round CofC had 16 birdies and two eagles.

"We still need to do a better job of eliminating the big numbers and when we do this we are going to be very good," McEntire said. "I'm excited about where we are right now."

Pat Hicks Thunderbird Invitational: CofC scores

7. Alex Ellis 70 (-2)

T14. Coy Breen 72 (E)

T25. John Duke Hudson 73 (+1)

T25. Seth Stuart 73 (+1)

T31. Parker Allen 74 (+2)

Individual-Ben Pounds 80 (+8)