No. 4 MGCCC stretches lead to 22 at District Championship

No. 4 Mississippi Gulf Coast expanded its lead on moving day at the NJCAA Gulf South District Championship in Brandon and now leads by 22 shots at Castlewoods Country Club.

Paul Hoefer (Fr., Heidelberg, Germany/Kurpfalzgymnasium Mannheim) shot 71 and leads the field at 1-under.

"The conditions were a little bit tougher on the course," Gulf Coast coach Brad Thornton said. "We were able to put together a respectable round even without our best stuff."

Logan Jensen (Fr., Diamondhead/Hancock), the first-round leader, is tied with Hinds' Stephen Faucheaux for second, a shot back of Hoefer.

All five Bulldogs are in the top 12. Cal Wier (Fr., Hernando/Lewisburg) shot 2-under 70 to climb into fourth place at 1-over. Matthew Bond (Fr., Ocean Springs/Ocean Springs) and Jayden Owensby (Fr., Hernando/Hernando) are tied for ninth at 4-over.

That depth highlights what is perhaps Thornton's toughest job: choosing five golfers to play in a tournament.

"I tell the guys if we could line up one through nine, I think we beat anybody in the country," he said. "But trying to figure out who those guys are gonna be is really difficult. For example, today, Cal had a really good round going, and he's always been one of the steadier players on our team. It was nice to see him post a red number. It was a real bottleneck today; at one point, we were one through five on the leaderboard."

There figures to be plenty of drama in Wednesday's final round, even with Gulf Coast well out in front. The medalist battle will be interesting, and even more so will be the battle for the second automatic ticket to the national championship. The other five teams are bunched within eight shots of each other, led by East Central at 20-over.

"Hopefully, we can get a few more tee shots in play and then obviously make a few more putts," Thornton said. "We will continue to play well because we're hitting it pretty well right now, and our course management is pretty good. I'm excited to see what happens, especially with the weather moving in tonight and out tomorrow."

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