Playa del Carmen, Mexico – All five members of Western Carolina's men's golf team advanced their positions in Monday's second round at the spring-opening Los Vaqueros Intercollegiate entering Tuesday's final round. Freshman Chase Cline further entrenched himself inside the individual top 10, carded a 2-under par round of 70 to advance into three-way tie for sixth place, a stroke outside of the top five and just four off the pace.
 
The Catamounts advanced three spots into 11th place, two strokes outside the top 10 entering Tuesday's final round that opens with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. Live scoring of the tournament is available online at CatamountSports.com.
 
Cline countered four bogeys with six birdies in round two to shoot 2-under par 70, one stroke off his collegiate career-low round. Opening on the par-4 13th, Cline birdied three of his first four holes to start the day for a 3-under par start. A pair of bogeys over his next six holes left him at 1-under with eight holes remaining. The Chapin, S.C., product regained his 3-under par score with consecutive birdies on holes No. 5 and No. 5 only to bogey the next two.
 
Cline capped his second 18 holes with his sixth birdie for the 2-under par round of 70.
 
Jace Butcher advanced five spots into a tie for 35th overall, trimming three strokes off his opening round at 2-over par 74 for a two-day tally of 151. Butcher overcame two double-bogeys and four bogeys with a team-best seven birdies to recover from a 4-over par start through the first five holes. He rallied back to even-par twice on Monday but followed with a bogey and a double-bogey, the latter on his final hole of the round.
 
Sophomore Michael Bevins knocked four strokes off his opening day score, shooting 76 to climb seven spots into a two-way tie for 52nd, notching two birdies in round two. Junior Ivan Ninkovic was WCU's biggest gainer, climbing 24 positions with a 1-over par 73 – 13 strokes better than Sunday's first round. He countered six bogeys with five birdies including four over his final five holes to rally from 5-over par over the final five holes.
 
First-round leader No. 16 SMU has company atop the leaderboard through 36 holes as UTEP moved four spots with a 13-under par team round as the Mustangs and Miners have matching two-round scores of 3-under par, 573. North Texas is 14 strokes in arrears in third place at 587, with UTSA (594) and ULM (595) rounding out the top five. Sophomore Andrew Korytoski moved a pair of spots in the standings after cutting five strokes off his first round with an 84 on Monday with three birdies.
 
Playing unattached as an individual, senior Kiefer Bulau slipped nine spots in the standings after matching his opening round 82 on Monday at 164.
 
SMU's Zachary Kingsland fired a 4-under par 68 in the second round to advance three spots to take the individual lead with a two-day tally of 6-under par 138. He carries a one-stroke lead over ULM's Louis Anceaux (139) and is up by two strokes over the two-way tie between SMU's William Sides and Dylan Teeter of UTEP with matching scores of 140.
 
Keep track of everything related to Catamount men's golf and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountMGolf). 
 
11th – Western Carolina – 315- 293 = 608 (+32)
T6 – Chase Cline – 72-70 = 142 (-2)
T35 – Jace Butcher – 77-74 = 151 (+7)
T52 – Michael Bevins – 80-76 = 156 (+12)
T62 – Ivan Ninkovic – 86-73 = 159 (+15)
T87 – Andrew Korytoski – 89-84 = 173 (+29)
T81 – Kiefer Bulau (ind.) – 82-82 = 164 (+20)