FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Following Monday's two rounds of the Ram Masters Invitational, the UC San Diego men's golf team sits in 13th place.

It is the first fall competition for the Tritons as an NCAA Division I team. The 2020 fall campaign was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Battling strong winds at the Fort Collins Country Club, about 65 miles north of Denver, UC San Diego shot rounds of 324 and 323 for a 647, 87-over par on the par-70, 7,234-yard course.

Colorado State is hosting the 16-team event. The Rams have won the tournament in each of the last six years. 

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HOW IT HAPPENED
Senior Ryan Vaughan and junior Elliot Bunyaviroch are tied for 34th place after finishing the day at 160 (+20). Vaughan had rounds. of 81 and 79, while Bunyaviroch went 79 and 81.

Also competing for the Tritons are sophomore Jerry Wu (+21, 82-79--161) who is tied for 40th, freshman Francis Catalano (+26, 82-84--166), tied for 62nd, and senior Jared Gross (+29, 85-84--169), who is tied for 79th.

Bunyaviroch, Vaughan, and Wu each shot a 79 in a round, the lowest score for UC San Diego.

Northern Colorado leads the field with a 622, 62-over par.

Only seven strokes separate Northern Colorado from Utah Valley, which is in ninth place.

With the challenging conditions, there were no players in the 89-competitor field that finished the day under par. Northern Colorado's Jack Castiglia is in front at 4-over. He fired rounds of 73 and 71.

Four players are tied for second place at 8 over.

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TRITON TIDBITS
• Freshman Francis Catalano made his collegiate debut.
• It was the first collegiate tournament for Elliot Bunyaviroch since Feb. 9, 2020, at the Orange County Collegiate Classic. The junior took a gap year during the 2020-21 season.
• The lowest opening round today was a 313 by Northern Colorado.

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UP NEXT
The Ram Masters Invitational concludes Tuesday with the third round, which tees off at 7 a.m. PT. All action can be followed with live scoring. For the team's complete fall schedule, click here.

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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.