Veerman (Sugar Land, Texas) is in a tie for eighth place overall at 3-under 141 (71-70), two shots back of co-leaders Steve Lim of USC (66-73=139, -5) and Cheng-Tsung Pan of Washington (71-68).
As a team, the Aggies improved by 10 shots in the second round, carding a 2-over 290 on the afternoon to move up to 11th place overall with a 14-over 590 (300-290).
"I know it's hard to believe, but we're really close to playing outstanding golf," head coach J.T. Higgins said. "We hit so many good golf shots today and did so many things well, but we're playing the par 5s terribly. We were 7-over today and we usually play them 5- to 10-under in a round. Obviously that's a huge swing in shots, especially when you shoot 2-over as a team despite shooting 7-over on the par 5s. We made plenty of birdies in other areas."
Host, defending champion and No. 5-ranked Georgia Tech took the lead on Monday and sits at 566 (-10), three shots ahead of No. 3 UCLA (-7). No. 13 Washington, No. 11 USC and No. 1 Auburn (-6) are tied for third, while No. 18 Florida State (+2), No. 12 Clemson (+4), No. 21 Duke (+7), Kent State (+7) and Iowa (+8) rounding out the top 10. Wake Forest (+17) is in 12th place followed by No. 23 Virginia (+23) and East Tennessee State (+32).
Individually, junior Case Cochran shot a 1-under 71 and is in a tie for 35th (76-71=147, +3). Senior Jordan Russell is at 5-over (76-73=149) and in a tie for 47th, with junior Cameron Peck (77-76=153, +9) and freshman Ty Dunlap (82-77=159, +15) rounding out the Aggie scores.
"It's hard to get down on the guys," Higgins said. "They look great and are handling themselves well. We'll go out tomorrow and try to have good round and move up the leaderboard. We're not used to being this far down (the leaderboard), but we're just going through the process and trying not to beat ourselves up too much. But it's right there. It's a long season and we're going to get better, and I just really like what I see. The strength of this team at the end of the year is how we play the par 5s, and right now we're not doing that well. We're learning how to handle those things and we'll get better. That won't be a problem come spring and at the end of the year."
Tuesday's third and final round begins at 8 a.m. (CT). Texas A&M is scheduled to tee off at 8:50 a.m. (CT) and will be paired with Iowa and Kent State.
Fans can tune in to a free live webcast of Tuesday's final round beginning at 1 p.m. (CT) on the tournament's official website, www.theuscc.org. In addition, live scoring throughout the day will be available on golfstat.com and updates can be found via the team's official Twitter account, @AggieMensGolf.