SAN ANTONIO – Georgia State senior Tyler Gruca shot a second-round 66, tied for the lowest in NCAA Regional play in school history to lead the Panthers to a 3-under, 285, moving the squad into fourth place with one round to play at Briggs Ranch Golf Club.
Gruca's 6-under performance is the lowest in relation to par in program history and matched a 66 (-4) shot by Ty Harris in 2005 at the Golf Club of Tennessee. Gruca is tied for third after holing-out twice during his record-setting round.
Georgia State, ranked No. 43 in the nation, stands at 1-over par heading into the final round. The Panthers must finish among the top five teams to advance to the NCAA Championship in Hutchinson, Kan., next week.
Georgia State currently leads No. 18 UCLA, No. 42 Georgia Southern and TCU each by one stroke. The Panthers are just seven strokes behind No. 31 SMU for third. The Panthers have advanced to the championship four times since 2000.
The Panthers, who are making their 11th NCAA Regional appearance since 1999, entered the postseason having won a school-record three straight tournaments, including the Sun Belt Conference Championship.
“I don't know if I can put into words how special Tyler's round was today,” head coach Joe Inman said. “He has had a great career and for some, just to make it this far would have been special, but the way Tyler played today shows how much he wants to play one more week. I could not be any more proud of him.
“As well as Tyler played, I am really proud of the entire team. They stepped up today and made the move up the leaderboard that we needed. We know that there is a lot of golf to play and a lot of teams around us, but I think if we just play our game tomorrow, at the end of the day we will be right where we want to be.”
Gruca made seven birdies during his round and is now at 5-under par for the regional following a first round 73.
Junior Damon Stephenson shot his second straight round of 72 and is tied for 18th. Stephenson made a pair of birdies and pair of bogeys during the round.
Junior Davin White shot his second straight 1-over 73 and is tied for 32nd at 2-over. After shooting 2-over on his first nine, White got things rolling with three birdies on the front nine before a bad break on hole No. 8 led to a double bogey.
Sophomore J.J. Grey, appearing in an NCAA Regional for the second straight year, shot a second round 2-over 74 and is tied for 57th at 6-over. Grey made three birdies during his second round.
Freshman Nathan Mallonee rounded out the Panthers line-up with a 4-over 76, with his lone birdie coming on hole No. 9, his 18th of the day. He also stands at 6-over with 18 holes to play.
No. 6 Georgia shot 3-under for the day and moved to 10-under thru 36 holes to open a two-stroke lead heading to the final round. No. 19 Vanderbilt made the biggest move of the day, shooting a 15-under 273 to move into second place. No. 31 SMU is third at 6-under, followed by the Panthers in fourth at 1-over. Following the three-way tied for fifth at 2-over between UCLA, TCU and Georgia Southern, College of Charleston is eighth at 2-over. No. 7 UCF is currently ninth at 6-over.
Live hole-by-hole scoring of the entire 54-hole tournament will be available at Golfstat.com and on the Golfstat mobile app.
Georgia State will be paired with UCLA and TCU for the final round on Saturday. The group will tee off at 8:50 a.m. ET off the No. 1 tee.
