After a slow start, the Florida men’s golf team fought back to shoot an even-par 288 Friday in the Puerto Rico Invitational in San Juan. The tournament is being hosted by Purdue University.
Junior Tyson Alexander of Gainesville and Billy Horschel of Grant each shot a 1-under-par 71 to tie for 13th place and pace the Gators
“At one point today all of our guys were two shots over par,” UF head coach Buddy Alexander said. “I was proud of our guys for coming back and finishing strong. This is a tough field so we can’t afford to fall too far behind.”
Things did not look very promising early on for the Gators, but four of the five players in the lineup played the back nine holes under par to pull back to even par for the day.
Alexander and senior Toby Ragland of Jacksonville each shot three-under par 33 on the back nine to overcome their struggles on the front nine. Ragland finished at even-par 72 and is tied for 22nd.
Freshman Mu Hu of China finished one-under par for the back nine, but also struggled on the opening holes and finished the first round at two-over par 74, in a 42nd tie. Junior Tim McKenney of Scottsdale, Ariz., shot a three-over 75 and is tied for 52nd place.
Georgia Tech shot eight-under as a team and is one stroke ahead of second-place North Carolina State after one round. The Wolfpack’s Darren Blair and Texas’ Dylan Fritelli each shot 5-under-par 67s to share the top spot on the individual leaderboard.
TRACK AND FIELD: Florida freshman Gary Horn of Wapakoneta, Ohio, recorded the best opening day by a freshman heptathlete in school history and stood in third place after Day One of the competition at the SEC Indoors Track and Field Championships at Lexington, Ky.
Horn, who broke his own freshman first-day heptathlon school record of 3,050 that he achieved at the SEC/Big 12 Showdown on Jan. 30, set personal-best marks in three of the four events in which he competed Friday, turning in a score of 3,104.
Horn opened the night by recording a collegiate personal-best in the 60-meter dash, finishing in a time of 7.06. Horn then recorded a personal-best in the men’s long jump with a leap of 23-2.75 on his first attempt in that event to finish second.
Horn finished ninth in the men’s shot put with a toss of 39-5 to put him into third place after three events with an overall score of 2,301 points.
Horn closed the night with a personal-best leap of 6-6.75 in the high jump, tying for first in that event, which eclipsed his previous best mark of 6-6.25.
Florida’s Ryan Troy of Gainesville, who is also competing in the event, currently stands 17th with 2,396 points.
South Carolina’s Curt McGill currently leads the heptathlon competition with a score of 3,168, while Tennessee’s Michael Ayers is second with a tally of 3,128.
The meet resumes at 11 a.m. Saturday in E.J. Nutter Fieldhouse.