Making the most of his first tournament of the spring season, junior Mike Sica shot an even-par 70 to tie for 12th after the opening round of the Taylor Made/Waikoloa Intercollegiate tournament Wednesday in Hawaii.
Oregon, coming off a poor performance in Arizona last week, positioned itself well Wednesday with a sixth-place tie in the 26-team tournament.
Following Sica closely in the standings is Oregon senior Chris Carnahan, who shot a one-over-par 71. Rounding out Oregon’s scoring are freshmen Gregg LaVoie, tied for 46th with a 73 and senior John Ellis, tied for 62nd with a 74. Junior Jimmy White scored an 83 for the day.
Oregon finished with a team score of 288 at the par-70, 6,566-yard Waikoloa Resort Beach Golf Course. The tournament is being played on Waikoloa’s two courses, including the par-72, 6,594-yard King’s Golf Course.
Leading the field is No. 3 Texas Christian University, with a team score of 276. Oklahoma is five strokes behind at 281. Rounding out the top five are Lamar
and UCLA, at 283, and Texas Tech at 284.
Sica, who did not qualify to compete in last week’s Ping Arizona Intercollegiate Tournament, finished the day four strokes behind the leader. The leaderboard is in a tight bunch as only 14 strokes separate the top 10 teams. However, TCU has distanced itself from its nearest competitor, Oklahoma, with a five-stroke lead.
Oregon begins the second round today at 6:45 a.m. and wraps up play Friday.

— Scott Archer