Western Carolina tied for fourth at Jack Kirk Panther Intercollegiate

STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. – Junior Mariah Hopkins and sophomore Bethany Galloway both carded opening rounds of 2-over-par 74 to lead Western Carolina into a tie for fourth place overall after 18 of the 54 scheduled holes at the John Kirk / Panther Intercollegiate at the par-72, 6,109-yard Eagle’s Landing Country Club. The Catamount duo stands tied for ninth individually entering the second round.

Round two gets underway Monday morning with tee times starting off both the front and back nine at 8:30 a.m. Paired with golfers from Middle Tennessee and South Alabama, WCU’s scoring five will go off of the back nine between 9:42 a.m. and 10:18 a.m.

Hopkins carded a pair of birdies and one double-bogey on her first nine holes on Sunday to make the turn at even-par. She closed her opening round with two bogeys on the back nine to shoot 2-over 74. Galloway charted eight pars and one bogey on the front nine to turn at 1-over-par. On the back, she countered three bogeys with a birdie to match her teammate at 74.

WCU junior Kim Mitchell shot 5-over-par 77 to stand in a six-way tie for 24th after 18 holes. The Woodbridge, Va., native carded a pair of birdies with seven bogeys in her first round.

Rounding out WCU’s scoring five in the opening round were sophomore Olivia Landino in a tie for 42nd at 8-over-par 80 and her classmate Ashley Thompson in a tie for 60th after shooting 82. Landino had one birdie on Sunday, while Thompson carded two.

Troy (302) leads the 15-team field by two strokes over the second-place tie between Morehead State and Old Dominion, both carding matching team scores of 304. WCU and Middle Tennessee round out the top five teams in a tie for fourth, three strokes off the pace with team scores of 305.

Morehead State’s Jeannette Peterson leads the 83-golfer field by a stroke after shooting 1-under-par 71 on the first day. She holds a one-stroke edge over a three-way tie for second place.