KETTERING, Ohio. – The No. 8-ranked Fighting Illini opened play at the Moraine Intercollegiate on Monday with a combined team score of 15-under through 36 holes at Moraine Country Club.
The Orange and Blue are tied for third in the team race with Big Ten foe Penn State, six shots behind Missouri with 18 holes remaining. Xavier (-17) is alone in second place, while Iowa rounds out the top five at 14-under.
The Illinois lineup is led by senior Ryan Voois in a tie for fourth after Day 1. Voois sits at 6-under after carding rounds of 69 (-2) and 67 (-4) heading into Tuesday's final round. He was bogey-free in Round 2 after offsetting a pair of bogeys with four birdies in his opening round.
Freshman Dujuan Snyman (-7), competing as an individual, is off to the best start of his young collegiate career and is just one stroke off the medalist pace held by Missouri's Veikka Viskari (-8). Snyman bogeyed his first hole of the day, the Par-4 14th, before closing out his opening round of 69 (-2) with birdies on Holes 18, 3, and 9. He remained bogey-free in Round 2 and carded five more birdies to finish off a career-best round of 66 (-5).
Alongside Voois, senior Max Herendeen and sophomore Freddie Turnell contributed top-20 scores for the Illini's five-man lineup and are in a seven-way tie for 19th. Herendeen bounced back from a slow start – 3-over through his first three holes – to shoot 6-under the rest of the way. Turnell, a sophomore getting his second-career start in the Illini lineup, carded a 1-under 70 in Round 1, then followed it up with a 69 (-2) in Round 2.
Sophomore Trey Marrion carded back-to-back rounds of 70 (-1) to sit one stroke outside of the top 20 at 2-under, while Junior Dane Huddleston, who recorded rounds of 70 (-1) and even-par 71, is tied for 32nd.
The Illini's two other indy competitors, junior Ethan Wilson and sophomore Jake Birdwell, also sit in a tie for 26th at 2-under. Birdwell posted a career-low round of 66 (-5) on Monday afternoon.
Round 3 is set to begin, once again, with a shotgun start slated for 8:45 a.m. ET/7:45 a.m. CT. Illinois, paired with Missouri and Xavier, will tee off of Holes 1-4. Live scoring is available via Clippd Scoreboard.
