EMCC's Steven Eilders enters final round of NJCAA Division II Men's Golf Championship among middle of the pack

East Mississippi Community College's Steven Eilders fell back to the middle of pack after Thursday's 6-over-par 78 at the NJCAA Division II Men's Golf Championship being contested at Goose Pond Colony. The EMCC sophomore is tied for 56th place heading into Friday's fourth and final round.

EMCC's Steven Eilders enters final round of NJCAA Division II Men's Golf Championship among middle of the pack
May 21, 2015

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. – East Mississippi Community College's Steven Eilders fell back to the middle of pack after Thursday's 6-over-par 78 at the NJCAA Division II Men's Golf Championship being contested at Goose Pond Colony.  The EMCC sophomore is tied for 56th place heading into Friday's fourth and final round.

Eilders, a Ridgeland product, stood in a 40th-place tie heading into Thursday's third round after carding a 73 Tuesday and an even-par 72 on Wednesday.  The MACJC All-State Second Team honoree for first-year head coach Benji Williams' EMCC Lions shot 39 on both the front and back nines Thursday but had two late birdies on the 14th and 16th holes nullified after bogeying the final two holes.  Eilders' three-day score of 223 is tied with five others among the 119-player field.

Phillip Hickam, of eight-time reigning NJCAA Region 23 team champion Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, maintained his lead atop the individual leaderboard with Thursday's even-par 72.  His composite 205 total (66-67-72) presently stands three shots better than Jacob Ross of Copiah-Lincoln (68-72-68—208), who fired a 4-under-par 68 Thursday to play his way into contention.

A three-way tie for third place currently exists between teammates Ben Harden (69-68-72—209) and Connor Klein (66-71-72—209) of current tournament team leader South Mountain (Ariz.) CC and Brandon Rougeau (73-67-69—209) of current tournament team runner-up Tyler (Texas) JC.

The team standings heading into Friday's final round find South Mountain (277-276-288—841) leading Tyler (282-284-282—848) by seven strokes at 23-under and 16-under, respectively.  Mississippi Gulf Coast fell off the pace with a 300 team score on Thursday to settle in at 4-under-par (283-277-300—860) after three rounds.

Also competing this week at nationals as individual qualifiers among Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) member schools, Alex Tull of Northeast Mississippi is currently tied for 11th with three other players at 212 (68-73-71) for the week.  In addition, Connor Cavin (74-72-76—222) and Austin Terrell (74-73-77—224) of Meridian Community College are tied for 51st and 62nd place, respectively.       

NJCAA golf action concludes Friday on the 7,145-yard, par-72 Lake Course layout.  Results will be available online at http://www.mccaa.org/f/16/3/Golf/2015_Golf_Nationals.php.