STOCKTON, Calif. - A season-best round lifted the UC San Diego men's golf team into second place following the opening 18 holes of play at the Visit Stockton Invitational Thursday.

Two Tritons can be found among the top-three on the individual leader board with Davis McDowell tied for first and Ethan Chen tied for third.

Pacific is hosting the three-day tournament at the Stockton Golf & Country Club.

HOW IT HAPPENED
UC San Diego compiled a team score of 274, 10-under par, on the par-71, 6,556-yard layout to end the first day of play in second among the 16-team field. The Tritons are just a single stroke behind first-place Grand Canyon, which made a late push to nudge UC San Diego out of the top spot.

Fresno State sits in third at 8-under par, while San Jose State and Washington State are tied for fourth at 7-under par.

Eleven of 16 teams finished under par with one at even par and four over par.

Continuing the season-low theme, McDowell fired a 65 (-6) to end the day tied for first with Jin Nakao from UC Irvine. Not only is that a season-low round by any Triton, it's also a career-best for the sophomore. His day featured six birdies and 12 pars, which included back-to-back birdies on the par-4 seventh hole and the par-3 eighth hole.

Chen carded a 66 (-5), also a career-best performance. His round included five birdies and 13 pars. He too recorded back-to-back birdies on the par-5 14th and the par-3 15th. He is in a four-way tie for third place.

Freshman Nathan Tseng was the third Triton to finish below par with a 70 (-1). He is among the top-30, currently tied for 27th. 

As a team, UC San Diego totaled 23 birdies, the second-most of the day, and 54 pars. 

TRITON RESULTS
T-1. Davis McDowell, -6 (65)
T-3. Ethan Chen, -5 (66)
T-27. Nathan Tseng, -1 (70)
T-60. Elliot Bunyaviroch, +2 (73)
T-60. Kyle Dougherty, +2 (73)

TRITON TIDBITS
• Today's 274 is eight strokes better than the team's previous low round this season, which was a 282 in the first round of the Ram Masters Invitational in Colorado.
• Davis McDowell's previous career-best round was a 67 in the second round of the UC San Diego Invitational last season.
• McDowell has been UC San Diego's top finisher in each of the team's last two events.
• It was Ethan Chen's first sub-70 round as a Triton.
• This is the first time that UC San Diego has played in this tournament.
• There are six Big West teams in contention including Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara.
• This is one of two three-day tournaments the Tritons will compete in this season, the second being the El Macero Classic in mid-April.

UP NEXT
The Tritons tee off in the second round Friday at 9:15 a.m. They will be paired with players from Fresno State and Grand Canyon. You can view the complete round two pairings here. The third and final round is slated for Saturday morning.

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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 III and II 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.