The Aggies again finished strong, going 12 shots better on the second 18 holes and finishing the day at 6-under 570. A&M is 13 shots back of leader and co-host North Florida (557, -19) heading into Tuesday's final round.
"On the positive side, we hung in there and battled all day," head coach J.T. Higgins said. Because of that, we were able to rally and finish off the second round and stay in contention. The only real negative was another slow start. It feels like we're constantly trying to come from behind. I love that we always fight back and play with so much pride, but it's really tough to make up ground on good teams."
VCU (572, -4) is two shots back of A&M in third place, followed by Georgia Southern (+4), Troy (+9), Xavier (+12), Wofford (+20), Winthrop (+22), Penn State (+23), Jacksonville (+25), USC Upstate (+26), Furman (+32), Francis Marion (+32), Arkansas State (+36) and Elon (+41).
Junior Cameron Peck paced the Aggies individually, carding identical rounds of 70 to finish the day at 4-under 140 and in a tie for fifth place. Peck is three shots behind leader Sean Dale of North Florida (137, -7).
Joining Peck in the top 10 are senior Jordan Russell (74-69) and redshirt freshman Greg Yates (73-70), who are both tied for 10th with a 1-under 143. Senior Geoff Shaw carded an even-par 144 (74-70) and is tied for 14th, while sophomore Johannes Veerman (76-74=150, +6) is tied for 36th.
I'm really proud of how we finished today," Higgins said. "Jordan played the last six holes 5-under, Cam birdied three of his last four and Geoff and Greg made two birdies coming in. That showed some terrific poise and composure."
The third and final round gets underway Tuesday morning, and Texas A&M is paired with VCU and North Florida. The Aggies will tee off at 9:30 a.m. (ET) from the first hole.
Live scoring is not available, but fans can follow via the official Twitter account of the program at @AggieMensGolf.