West Virginia golf in position to advance to NCAA Championship final after first round of regional play

With their first round at the Rancho Santa Fe regional of the NCAA Championship officially wrapped up, West Virginia golf sits in a strong position to potentially advance to the championship finals if they can maintain their spot on the team leaderboard.

WVU, who entered as the No. 10 seed in the regional, is tied for fifth-place on the team leaderboard, with all five members of the lineup finished with their first 18 holes. Junior Pierce Grieve also sits tied for tenth-place individually, with just one golfer ahead of him on the leaderboard from a team outside the top-five, and another tied with him. After 54 holes, the top five teams and the lowest-scoring individual outside those rosters will advance to the NCAA Championship final.

As a team, the Mountaineers, shot five-over-par, and they share fifth-place with San Diego. As a team, they sit just one stroke behind fourth-place Oklahoma and eight strokes behind tournament leader North Florida.

Grieves sits at even par after 18 holes as an individual -- he is just four strokes out of the lead, which is currently held by California's Sampson Zheng. The only individual ahead of Grieves from a team outside the top-five is Chuan-Tai Lin of Washington, who is just one stroke ahead of Grieves. Mikkel Mathiesen of Wright State, whose team is also outside of the top-five, is tied with Grieves on the leaderboard.

West Virginia junior Max Green and sophomore Kaleb Wilson both sit at one-over-par, tied with 11 other golfers for the 13th overall spot in the field. Junior and West Virginia native Todd Duncan sits at three-under-par for the Mountaineers, while senior Jackson Davenport rounds out the lineup at the lineup at five-over-par.

Stay tuned to HailWV.com throughout the next two days for updates on the Mountaineers' performance in the tournament.