Thomas has record round; Herd leads Feaganes Invitational

Sep. 9—By GRANT TRAYLOR

Marshall Athletics

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall men's golf leads the 2024 Joe Feaganes Marshall Invitational by eight strokes after a strong first day on the first day of competition at Guyan Golf & Country Club.

Cameron Jarvis is tied for the tournament lead at 7-under after a second round 64, which came after teammate Clayton Thomas tied the Guyan and Marshall program record with a 62 in the first round.

Thomas — the former Fairland Dragons standout — is currently one stroke back of Jarvis at 6-under for the Herd.

It was part of a banner opening day of the 2024-25 season for the Herd, who leads second-place Morehead State by eight strokes going into Tuesday's final round.

"The thing that I was the most pleased about was that we had two incredible rounds and the rest of the guys did a really good job of supporting that," Marshall coach Matt Grobe said. "We had guys that didn't play their best in the morning, but turned it on in the afternoon and we had some guys in the morning that didn't have the best afternoon, but our day balanced out really well. I feel like it was a really nice team day for us, and we had some nice individual performances."

Jarvis' 7-under 64 came on the strength of a mid-round stretch in which he birdied four of five holes, then later eagled No. 11 before draining a long birdie putt on No. 17 as well.

For Jarvis, the strong second round effort came after he found rhythm to end his morning round.

After starting 3-over, Jarvis turned things around over the final eight holes, recording birdies on three of the next four holes to finish at Even for his first round, which gave him momentum going into the afternoon.

"I had just bogeyed No. 11 and I looked at the leaderboard to see how the team was doing and I saw that I needed to step up to contribute," Jarvis said. "Key (Thomas) was playing incredible in Round 1 and Bilby was playing well, so I needed to step up. I just went out and trusted myself more than I did the first 10 holes and played really solid the last 26 holes of the day."

Thomas set the tone for the day with a 9-under 62 to start the day that propelled the Thundering Herd into the lead after round one.

The Herd senior had a bogey-free first round in which he birdied five straight holes from Nos. 7 to 11, including a 20-foot snake on No. 9 that continued his momentum through the turn.

Other notable performances from the day included Ryan Bilby (4-under, Round 1), Joseph Kalaskey (3-under, Round 2), J.F. Aber (2-under, Round 2), Sammy Shy (Even, Round 1), Ben Bridges (Even, Round 2), Andrew Wyss (Even, Round 2).

Marshall Tee Locations — Final Round

Shotgun start at 8:30 a.m.

Hole No. 1A — Clayton Thomas

Hole No. 1B — Cameron Jarvis

Hole No. 2 — J.F. Aber

Hole No. 3 — Ryan Bilby

Hole No. 4 — Joseph Kalaskey

Hole No. 14 — Sammy Shy, Ben Bridges

Hole No. 16B — Andrew Wyss

Hole No. 17 — Cael Ropietski, Bennett Zeitner

Hole No. 18 — Tanner Vest