May 20, 2010
Bremerton, Wash. -
Individual Results in PDF Format 
Team results in PDF Format
Illinois stands fourth after the first round of the NCAA West Regional. The Illini shot a five-over par 293, seven shots behind host and leader Washington (286) and just two shots out of a tie for second between Colorado State and Oregon State (291). San Diego is in fifth at 294, one stroke behind Illinois and three shots in front of sixth-place USC for the transfer spot. The top five teams will advance to the NCAA Championship. Rounds two and three are slated for Friday and Saturday, respectively.
"It was a solid day all in all," Illinois head coach Mike Small said. "We played very well for most of the day - about the first 14-15 holes -- but we didn't close as well as we usually do. It's a long three days, though. You can't win in the first day, but you can lose it. From that standpoint, I like the position we are in."
Sophomore Luke Guthrie paced Illinois individually. After placing fourth at the Big Ten Championship, Guthrie fired a two-under par 70 and is in a three-way tie for third place, just one shot behind co-leaders Espen Kofstad of Denver and Dustin Morris of Colorado State.
"Luke really helped us out," Small said. " He was certainly an important piece of the day giving us that good low eraser score."
Matt Hoffman is tied for 15th in the 75-main field at +1 (73). Junior Scott Langley and senior Zach Barlow are tied for 31st at +3 (75) with junior Chris DeForest tied for 51st at +6 (78).
The round was delayed 90 minutes because of rain and the players were fighting the elements most of the day.
"We had four seasons of weather in one day," Small said. "We saw sun, rain sleet and hail all in the course of an afternoon."
Illinois will play with San Diego and USC on Friday morning, teeing between 10:20 and 11 am CDT.
