The Eastern men’s golf team struggled as a whole in day one of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament on Monday.

Sophomore Alvaro Hernandez continued to consistently be the team leader after shooting a 73 in round one, which was one over par. The next best Eastern golfer was sophomore Charlie Adare who shot a 79, which is seven over par. Freshman Romeo Perez, junior Alex Gowin and freshman Grant Miller claimed three of the four worst round totals on Monday.

Perez is currently in 52nd after shooting an 83 in the first round. Gowin is in 54th followed by Miller in 55th. Gowin is 15 over par, while Miller is 20 over par. Eastern is in 11th place out of 11 teams with a total score of 322. As a team, they are 34 over par with two rounds remaining in the tournament.

Southern Illinois Edwardsville leads the team standings after the first day with a total round score of 282, which is six under. Jacksonville State is four under as a team in second place followed by Eastern Kentucky in third. Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech and Morehead State are in fourth, fifth and sixth place. Tennessee-Martin, Murray State, Belmont, Tennessee St and Eastern round out the rest of the team standings.

Charles Seals and Bobby Hayes are tied atop the individual standings with first-round totals of 67. Seals is from Tennessee Tech and Hayes is from Jacksonville State and they are both five under. In third is Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Luke Long who shot a 69. There is a three-way tie for fourth place between Eastern Kentucky’s Noah Combs, Austin Peay’s Hunter Tidwell and Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Brady Dixon who all shot a 70.

Last year’s individual champion Hunter Richardson from Tennessee-Martin is in a five-way tie for seventh place with a round score of 71, which is one under par. Tennessee State’s Jermey Fultz, Morehead State’s Cooper Colins, Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Conor Doe and Eastern Kentucky’s Will Sallee are among those tied for seventh.

Jacksonville State is the only team to have all five of its golfers in the top 20 after the first day of competition. Southern Illinois Edwardsville claims the top spot after day one because it has three of its golfers in the top 10.

Eastern will have a chance to improve its record over the next two days as there are still 36 holes left to play in the tournament.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]