No Arkansas golfer - not even John Daly - had a better round at the NCAA Championships than Nicolas Echavarria enjoyed Wednesday on the Crabapple Course of the Capital City Club in Atlanta.
Echavarria, a freshman from Medellin, Colombia, shot a 6-under 64 to help the Razorbacks move from 14th place to a tie for fifth in the team standings after two rounds.
Echavarria set an Arkansas record for a single round at an NCAA Championship, besting the 65 that Daly shot during the third round of the 1986 NCAA Championships at Bermuda Run Country Club in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Razorbacks also got a 67 from junior Sebastian Cappelen on Wednesday, 70s from senior Austin Cook and freshman Taylor Moore and a 72 from sophomore Thomas Sorensen for a two-round team total of 557 that tied them for fifth with Illinois.
Georgia Tech is the leader at 12-under par 548, followed by California (549), Texas (550) and Alabama (551).
The Razorbacks’ 9-under par 271 matched defending national champion Texas for the lowest team score Wednesday.
Echavarria carded four consecutive birdies on Nos. 4-7 and had six birdies and no bogeys for the round on the 7,319-yard par 70 course.
Cappelen, the SEC champion, had four birdies and one bogey.
The 30-team field will be cut to eight after today’s third round for match play. The final eight teams will be seeded and paired off for three rounds of match play to determine the champion.
Arkansas is one shot ahead of seventh-place Arizona State, two shots ahead of eight-place Texas A&M and four shots ahead of ninth-place Central Florida.
“As a team, we did what we set out to do, which was shoot under par and put ourselves in a position to make it into match play,” Arkansas Coach Brad McMakin said. “Getting into that top eight and continuing to play this week was our No. 1 goal, but we still have a lot of work to do in the final round.
“Nicolas and Sebastian were phenomenal today. Nicolas was rarely in danger of making a bogey today - every putt was right in the center of the cup. Sebastian closed well and sank a tough putt on 18 to get to three under.”
The Razorbacks tee off at 11:20 a.m. Central today along with Alabama and Illinois.
Sports, Pages 20 on 05/30/2013