YPSILANTI, MI. – The No.1-ranked UBC Thunderbirds built on their day one lead at the NAIA Championship by carding a combined even par on day two, the best single-round score of any team at the tournament so far. The T-Birds are now +9 overall and saw their four-stroke advantage after the first round balloon to a 12-stroke lead following round two.
Chasing UBC are the same two schools that were breathing down their neck through the first 18. No.8-ranked Marian (IN) came in with a solid +8 on Wednesday, putting them at 21 overall and 12 strokes behind the 'Birds in second place. The only other team within 20 shots of the blue and gold is defending NAIA Champion and No.2-ranked Keiser University, which had the second best round on Tuesday at +6, to sit at +24 overall, 15 strokes behind UBC.
FULL LEADERBOARD
Individually, Jessica Ng was the top T-Bird for the second day in a row, carding a second straight 69 (-3) to move into the individual lead of the tournament at -6, four strokes ahead of second place Sharon Shan (-2) of SCAD Savannah. NAIA No.2-ranked player Grace Bell improved by three strokes from Tuesday with a 73 (+1) to move up to seventh place. Una Chou also improved on day two with a solid 74 (+2), but dropped slightly on the individual leaderboard to place 11th through the first half of the event. Bo Brown shot 72 (E) to climb 20 spots into 15th to round out the team's top-four.
Wednesday marked cutdown day at the championship, with half of the 30 teams in the field eliminated.
UBC will be in the final groups to begin their round on Thursday, with the first T-Bird starting at 7:40 a.m. (PT).