Oct. 27, 2008

LUBBOCK, Texas - Thanks to a five-birdie round, Texas Tech golfer Garrett Merrell jumped 10 spots on the leaderboard in the second round and is tied in eighth place at the prestigious Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational in Orlando, Fla. The nation's 47th-ranked golfer enters Tuesday's final round five shots off of the lead.

Merrell carded a 73 in the opening round Sunday to lead the Red Raiders and continued his steady swing throughout the second. His five birdies offset three bogeys on the day for the junior. Santiago Rivas shot a 1-over 73 to go with his opening-round 72 and is tied in 15th place, while Chris Ward followed Sunday's 74 with a 75. He is tied in 30th place. Brian Scherer has rounds of 75 and 76 and is tied in 51st place and Will Griffin followed Sunday's 81 with a 74. He is in a 74th-place tie.

The No. 29 Red Raiders are 10-over for the tournament after knocking two strokes off of Sunday's 294 in the second round. No. 4 Georgia (571) leads the event over No. 15 Indiana (574), No. 6 Alabama (578), No. 3 USC (579) and Tech (586), respectively. No. 17 Georgia Tech (587), No. 16 Texas (589), No. 2 Oklahoma State (593), No. 7 Stanford (593) and No. 11 Clemson comprise the top ten.

Top-ranked Illinois (595) is 11th, followed by No. 26 LSU (598), No. 8 South Carolina (599), Charlotte (600), UCLA (600), Arizona (604), No. 48 Kentucky (609) and No. 40 Central Florida (610).

Tuesday's third and final round gets underway at 8 a.m. CT. Live scoring will be available throughout the round at www.golfstat.com.