Spartanburg, S.C. – On the podium in third place after 18 of the scheduled 54 holes at the Wofford Invitational, Western Carolina redshirt sophomore Tyler Jones paces four of WCU's scoring five inside the individual Top 20 as the Catamounts hold a three-stroke lead in the team championship race after Sunday's first round at the par-71, 6,720-yard Country Club of Spartanburg.
 
The Catamounts carded an opening-round score of 276, just one stroke off matching their best single-round score of the season – 275, carded twice – to carry a three-stroke lead over a two-way tie for second between No. 49 USF and Winthrop into Monday's second round.
 
Jones is just a stroke off the pace, tied with four others for third with matching scores of 4-under par, 67. He is joined inside the individual Top 10 by junior Michael Bevins, as the Fort Myers, Fla. product fired a 2-under par 69 on Sunday, his second round in the 60s this season.
 
Action continues with the second round on Monday, beginning with tee-times off the first and 10th tee, beginning at 8:30 a.m. WCU scoring five takes the course on the back nine in the 8:54 a.m. pairing, matched with golfers from Francis Marion. Live scoring for each round is available online through the Scoreboard app, powered by Clippd.
 
Opening on the front nine, Jones fired a blemish-free first round, carding a pair of birdies aside to accompany 14 pars to shoot 4-under, 67. Bevins opened his day with a birdie and countered three bogeys with five total birdies for his 2-under par round of 69 in a 10th-place tie.
 
Juniors Andrew Korytoski and Jace Butcher are tied for 18th after matching scores of 1-under par 70 on Sunday. Korytoski countered a pair of bogeys with three birdies, while Butcher bookended his opening round with scorecard theatrics.
 
The Kennesaw, Ga., product birdied his first hole before being relegated back to even-par with a bogey on the par-3 third. Butcher then posted nine-straight pars before his birdies on the par-4 13th and par-5 15th moved him to two-under. A double-bogey on No. 16 moved him back to even before he eagled the 510-yard par-5 17th to move back to 2-under, closing with a bogey on his 18th hole for the 1-under round.
 
Senior Ivan Ninkovic rounded out the Catamount lineup in a tie for 72nd at 5-over par 76, charting a pair of birdies, two bogeys, and two double-bogeys on Sunday.
 
Playing unattached as individuals, freshman Charlie Coe is tied for 49th overall at 3-over par 74, while junior Dalton Payne is a stroke back in a tie for 62nd with a 4-over par round of 75. Coe posted four birdies on Sunday, while Payne countered five bogeys with a birdie.
 
The Catamounts hold a three-stroke edge over USF and Winthrop after 18 holes, with nationally-ranked Division II USC Aiken (No. 19) four off the pace at 280. Radford rounds out the top five, eight strokes in arrears with a first-round score of 284. Longwood (286) is sixth, just ahead of fellow Southern Conference schools Mercer and event host Wofford in a tie for seventh at 287, followed by High Point (289) in ninth and Samford in 10th (291).
 
Wofford individual Andrew Neal and Tate Corbett from Radford lead the 88-golfer field after 18 holes, tied for first with matching scores of 5-under par, 66, a stroke clear of the field. Jones is joined by No. 88 Cameron Baez of USC Aiken and Winthrop's Dylan Park, as well as unattached individual competitors Matthew Smith from Samford and Shlok Jain of High Point, in a tie for third with first-round scores of 67.
 
Tournament action continues Monday with tee times at 8:30 a.m. and concludes Tuesday with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
 
1 – Western Carolina – 276 (-8)
T3 – Tyler Jones – 67 (-4)
T10 – Michael Bevins – 69 (-2)
T18 – Jace Butcher – 70 (-1)
T18 – Andrew Korytoski – 70 (-1)
T72 – Ivan Ninkovic – 76 (+5)
T49 – Charlie Coe (individual) – 74 (+3)
T62 – Dalton Payne (individual) – 75 (+4)