March 17, 2008

Pinehurst, N.C. - Western Carolina carded a team score of 299 on Monday to advance three places to stand tied for fourth entering the final round at the 2008 Pinehurst Intercollegiate, co-hosted by Indiana and East Carolina at the par 72, 7,035-yard Centennial Pinehurst No. 8. Senior Matt Cook and junior Andres Cuenca both stand tied for 19th to pace the Catamounts after two of the three rounds.

The final round of the three-day, 54-hole event will be played on Tuesday.

Coupled with its opening-round two-under par 286, 26th-ranked Indiana holds a commanding 24-stroke lead over second place Eastern Kentucky. The Hoosiers fired a six-over par 292 Monday and have a two-day score of 578. The Colonels are in second place with a 36-hole total of 26-over par 602 (304-298). Virginia Commonwealth is in third place with a 27-over par 603 (303-300), just three strokes ahead of Western (307-299) and 17th-ranked Penn State (312-294) tied for fourth.

After shooting even par through the front nine, Cook recorded two birdies and three bogeys, including one on the final hole to shoot a one-over, 73 - five strokes ahead of his opening round. Likewise, Cuenca trimmed three strokes off his opening round 77 to shoot 74, bogeying No. 17 and 18 to fire the two-over. Both golfers have two-round totals of 151.

WCU's first round leaders, freshman Caleb Marsh and junior Dustin Furnari, continued to mirror each other, each shooting identical scores of 76 on Monday to stand tied for 23rd, one stroke back at 152. Rounding out Western's scorers was sophomore Ricky Stout tied for 58th with a 13-over, 157.

Paired with golfers from seventh-place San Francisco and ninth-place Wisconsin - which entered the tournament ranked 43rd in the country - Western is slated to tee off from hole number one beginning at 8:00 am.

T4 Western Carolina U. +30 F 307 299 606
T19 Matt Cook +7 F 78 73 151
T19 Andres Cuenca +7 F 77 74 151
T23 Caleb Marsh +8 F 76 76 152
T23 Dustin Furnari +8 F 76 76 152
T58 Ricky Stout +13 F 78 79 157