Tuesday, May 18, 2021

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Only two teams had better second rounds than Saint Martin’s.

The Saints turned in a team score of 303 in the second round of the NCAA Division II National Championships at the Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. First-place Indianapolis (286) and second-place West Florida (295) were the two teams that outperformed the Saints on Tuesday.

Saint Martin’s moved up two spots to 14th place on the team leaderboard with an overall score of 640. The Saints sit six shots back of 13th-place St. Thomas Aquinas.

Junior Max Turnquist leads the Saints after Tuesday in a three-way tie for 30th place with a score of 155. He shot 3-over-par 75 in the second round, improving from his opening-round score of 80. Turnquist’s day was highlighted by a birdie on the par-four 13th hole.

Fellow junior Dennis Geissler had the best round for the Saints, carding 2-over-par 74 to come into a four-way tie for 61st place at 162. Geissler’s second-round score marks a 14-stroke improvement from his first round. He birdied on the par-five sixth hole and the par-four 11th. Senior Tyler Fitchett sits just one stroke back of Geissler at 163 after carding 4-over-par 76 on Tuesday. Fitchett’s 11-stroke improvement puts him in a four-way tie for 65th.

Montana State Billings senior Garrett Woodin improved by three strokes in the second round, shooting 4-over-par 76 to come into the same three-way tie for 30th place that Turnquist is in. Woodin climbed the leaderboard after finishing the opening round tied for 45th. He had four birdies on the day, including back-to-back on the eighth and ninth holes.

Indianapolis owns a 16-stroke lead after two rounds with a score of 587 while West Florida sits in second place at 603. Greyhounds’ junior Keegan Bronnenberg moved up 26 spots to come into a tie for first place with Oliver Lewis-Perkins of Lee University with a score of 1-over-par 145 after carding 3-under-par 69 on Tuesday.

The third round of the NCAA Division II Championships begins on Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. (EDT). Saint Martin’s will tee off at 8:25 a.m. while Woodin tees off at 8:58.