NINETY SIX, S.C. – Junior Brandon Weaver turned in a 1-under par 71 and finished the day inside the top-five on the individual leaderboard, as Longwood finished the day in third-place among the 10-team field at the Big South Championship Wednesday at the 7,120-yard Patriot Golf Club at Grand Harbor.

Weaver posted his sixth under-par round of the season and moved into the tournament's top-five with his 1-under 71, as he utilized five birdies throughout his round after coming into the week with top 25 finishes in all four of his events in the spring.

Longwood closed the day with an 8-over par 296 and in third place in the team standings, as the top-four teams after 54 holes will move on to match play. Campbell leads the field after the opening round 10-under 278, while Gardner-Webb (+5, 293), Longwood (+8, 296), USC Upstate (+9, 297) and Winthrop (+18, 306) round out the top five teams.

"For the most part, we did a good job of hanging in there and doing what we needed for the majority of the day," said Longwood head coach Kevin Fillman. "We hurt ourselves with a few poor swings and that hurt us. We could be in a little better position than we are right now but we're still in position to reach our ultimate goal which is to play in the match play at the end of the week."

Weaver finished the day as one of four Lancers among the tournament's top-25, as Adam Szwed turned in a 2-over par round of 74 coming off a T-26 finish at the Big Blue Intercollegiate last week. Szwed, who finished inside the top 30 in his last two Big South Championship's finished the day T-12 overall and one shot outside the tournament's top 10.

"Brandon is going to find a way to score whether he plays well or doesn't play well, he's going to battle and find a way to get it done," Fillman said. "That's the best thing about him is that he just keeps working to do what he needs in order to post a number that more times than not will be beneficial for our team."

Meanwhile, Teagan Stephenson posted a 3-over par 75 to finish the day T-14 on the 50-player leaderboard, as the junior has two top 15 finishes in his last four starts.


Despite making a 10 on the 560-yard, par 5 fifth hole, senior Jordan Boulton turned in a 4-over par 76 in his final Big South Championship. He finished the day T-22 on the leaderboard, one shot outside the top 15.

Colin Caporal rounded out the Longwood scores with a 12-over par 84 to finish the day 46th overall.

Due to expected inclement weather Friday, the final 36 holes of the stroke play portion of the event will be played Thursday with tee times to begin at 8 a.m., with the top four teams qualifying for the match play portion.

"We just need to be smarter at times, we put ourselves in bad spots where we made big numbers today," Fillman said. "Even though on the scoreboard it looks like we're in a good spot, it could've been better and we just have to take care of those little things that caused us to lose too many shots."

Team Standings
1              Campbell               278 (-10)
2              Gardner-Webb     293 (+5)
3              Longwood             296 (+8)
4              USC Upstate          297 (+9)
5              Winthrop               306 (+18)
T-6          High Point              310 (+22)
T-6          Radford                  310 (+22)
8              Hampton                311 (+23)
9              Presbyterian         312 (+24)
10           Charleston So.      314 (+26)

Longwood Standings
T-4          Brandon Weaver                 71 (-1)
T-12        Adam Szwed                         74 (+2)
T-14        Teagan Stephenson             75 (+3)
T-22        Jordan Boulton                     76 (+4)
46           Colin Caporal                        84 (+12)

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