NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. – The Trinity men's golf team is in a tie for seventh place after the first round of action at the NCAA III Championships on Tuesday.

The 72-hole championships are being held at Keene Trace Golf Club, which features both the Keene Run and the Champion Trace courses. The Tigers put up a team score of 290 on Tuesday, overcoming several rain delays and interruptions. The entire field adjusted to a shotgun start for the day, in anticipation of the bad weather, and Trinity teed off on holes 4-7 to start the day.

The Tigers trail clubhouse leader St. John's University (MN) by just six shots, and the crowded field features 12 teams that are 10 shots or less behind the leaders. Trinity, the No. 15 team heading into the tournament, is tied with No. 1 Emory University and No. 20 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in seventh, and just one shot back of No. 9 Oglethorpe University and No. 7 Piedmont University in a tie for fifth. A competitive field saw 11 individuals shoot under 70 with two players tied atop the leaderboard after shooting 67 (-5) to start this year's national championship. There are 23 total players that shot under par to start the tournament.

Senior Daniel Nunez (Los Angeles, Calif. / Loyola) led the Trinity team with a first-round 71 that has him tied for 14th individually at -1 after 18 holes. Nunez finished with three birdies on the day, moving to -3 after 13 holes.

Sophomore Jacob Mason (Westminster, Colo. / Holy Family) and first-year Carter Code (Calgary, Alberta, Canada / Manning) are both tied for 24th after shooting even-par 72s on Tuesday. Both Tigers also notched five total birdies, though Code also landed an eagle on the par-5 eighth. That eagle came on his third hole of the day to put him at -3 early, but he then needed three birdies on his final five holes to work back to even. Mason played the final seven holes at -2 to pull back to even, hitting four of his five birdies in that stretch.

First-year Neel Sandhu (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) and junior Giorgio Gianoulis (Salt Lake City, Utah / Rowland Hall) round out Trinity's golfers this week. Sandhu shot a 75 (+3) on the opening day, picking up a pair of birdies, and was playing -1 after 10 holes of action. Gianoulis finished with a score of 77 (+5) in the opening round, though he finished strong by shooting +1 over his final eight holes of the day.

Day two of the tournament is also scheduled for a shotgun start at 10:00 a.m. Nunez will play the par-5 eighth hole to start the day, with Mason and Code starting at #9, and Sandhu and Gianoulis teeing off from #10. Trinity will be playing with individuals from Piedmont, Transylvania University, and Wittenberg University. The top 18 teams after tomorrow's results will make the cut and continue on to rounds three and four. The top six individuals not on those 18 teams will also advance to play for the individual title.