While the sun glistened and glimmered down upon Tumble Hills Golf Course in Cle Elum, Washington yesterday at the Husky Invitational, the Cougars wilted in the face of a challenging course and stiff competition.

In an all-day affair that saw the 14 team field complete two rounds (36 holes) of play, WSU shot 32-over (600) and finds itself tied in eighth place heading into today’s third and final round. Tournament leader and Pac-12 member Oregon State has a firm grip on the top spot after shooting 10-over (578) through two rounds, good enough for a five stroke lead on 2nd place Oregon (+15, 583).

In a tournament that the Cougars looked poised to make a statement to the rest of the conference, WSU trails all participating Pac-12 schools – Oregon State, Oregon, USC and Utah – two-thirds of the way through competition.

The Cougars are only two strokes behind Utah (+30, 598) and six behind sixth place Minnesota (+26, 594) as the teams tee off today.

Freshman Aaron Whalen continued his promising development in just his second collegiate tournament, turning in the Cougars’ lowest 18-hole score of the tournament (-2, 69) in Round 1.

Though in similar fashion to last week’s Saint Mary’s Invitational, it was inconsistency that keept WSU from taking the next step. Whalen shot 6-over (77) in Round 2 to finish 4-over (146) through two rounds of play.

Fellow freshman AJ Armstrong made his collegiate debut yesterday, turning in a respectable 147 (+5) to helm the second individual spot for WSU.

On a day where his team could have used another rock solid performance from him, sophomore Derek Bayley, last week’s top individual scorer for the Cougars, took a major step backward  yesterday, firing a 36-hole score of 10-over (152).

Seniors Bhurinat Songpaiboon and Evan Omelia carded identical marks of 13-over (155) to round out the scoring for WSU. Washington junior Corey Pereira and USC sophomore Sean Crocker sit atop the individual leaderboard at 5-under (137) heading into the final round.

Reporting by Brady Johnson