College Grove, Tenn. – Firing an opening-round 2-under par 70 on Monday that included sinking a hole-in-one on the par-3, 154-yard 15th, sophomore Pierre Viallaneix leads the Western Carolina men's golf team in a tie for sixth-place overall at the halfway point of the Intercollegiate at The Grove. WCU sits in 10th overall collectively as a team after shooting 297 in the first round.
 
Hosted by Middle Tennessee at The Grove Club, which plays par-72, 7,368 yards, the final round is slated for Tuesday morning with split tee times off both the front and back nine beginning at 9:00 am CT / 10:00 am ET. WCU's threesomes will again tee off on the back nine beginning at 10:20 and 10:30 am local time. Live scoring is available online through GolfStat.com.
 
Opening with a birdie on his first hole of the back nine to start the day Monday, Viallaneix played the entire round below par. His eagle on No. 15 dropped him to 3-under par for the day before a bogey moved him back to 2-under where he made the turn to the front nine. From there, the Apopka, Fla., native countered three bogeys with three birdies to shoot even over nine holes.
 
Freshman Presten Richardson posted his second-best collegiate round with a 2-over par 74 to sit tied for 30th entering Tuesday. A product of Miller, Mo., Richardson was even-par for nine of his 18 holes on Monday, countering four bogeys with a pair of birdies. He was poised to finish the day at +1 before a bogey on the par-4 ninth.
 
Also included in WCU's counted scores on Monday were sophomore Magnus Pedersen in a tie for 54th at 4-over 76 and junior Tumi Kúld in a tie for 65th at 5-over, 77. Pedersen was 1-over par through 10 holes before finishing his round with four bogeys and one birdie on the front while Kúld led the Catamounts with five combined birdies on Monday. The Akureyri, Iceland native played the front nine even-par after making the turn, though consecutive bogeys to finish the day dropped him from 3-over to 5-over par.
 
Rounding out WCU's six golfers were junior Louis Theys in a tie for 68th (78) and sophomore Quinton Metz in a tie for 80th (820). Both Theys and Metz carded two birdies in Monday's opening round.
 
Tournament-host Middle Tennessee and Coastal Carolina posted matching first-round scores of 4-under par 284 to share the top of the leaderboard after 18 holes. ULM (286) is third, two strokes off the pace with Mercer (287) in fourth ahead of the two-way tie for fifth between Southern Mississippi and Appalachian State at even-par 288.
 
The individual leaderboard features a three-way tie for first place at 4-under par 68 between Tyler Gray from Coastal Carolina, ULM's Andoni Etchenique, and Jonathan Parker from Mercer.
 
A complete recap of the final round will be made available on Tuesday evening.
 
10 – Western Carolina – 297 (+9)
T7 – Pierre Viallaneix – 70 (-2)
T30 – Presten Richardson – 74 (+2)
T54 – Magnus Pedersen – 76 (+4)
T65 – Tumi Kúld – 77 (+5)
T68 – Louis Theys – 78 (+6)
T80 – Quinton Metz – 82 (+10)