Maverick McNealy of Stanford collected his second victory in as many starts, tying for medalist honors with Dylan Meyer of Illinois in the Fighting Illini Invitational as the Cardinal finished fourth at Olympia Fields Country Club outside Chicago.
McNealy, a sophomore from Portola Valley who earlier captured the Southwestern Invitational at the Alisal, posted a score of 71-71-71–213, three-over par, while Myer finished at 72-70-71–213.
“Maverick has been very solid these last two weeks, and two medals in a few strong fields is a great start to his year with added confidence,” said Conrad Ray, Stanford’s director of golf. “Jim Liu has had two great weeks, too. It’s good to see him playing better and on the right track.
“I’m happy with how the guys hung in there, but we’ve got much to work on. It’s early in the year, so it was good for us to play a challenging course to see what we have team-wise.”
Charlie Danielson of Illinois was third at 72-75-67–214, while Kyle Jones of Baylor shot 72-70-73–215 to tie for fourth with Rowin Caron of Florida State, who came in at 73-71-71–215.
Jim Liu of Stanford tied for 12th at 72-76-70–218 and teammate Patrick Grimes tied for 19th at 74-73-74–221.
Host Illinois posted a score of 294-290-277–861 to capture the team title, followed by Florida State at 293-296-283–872, Baylor at 297-279-300–876, Stanford at 294-299-299–882 and Oklahoma State at 295-296-294–885.
