Led by senior Brian Sparks' (Shelby Township, MI/Lutheran North) round of 72, the Titan men's golfers stand in a 12th-place tie with Murray State following Thursday's first round of the NCAA Central Regional.

Sparks made three birdies on the day at Notre Dame's Warren Golf Club and is tied for 29th place individually on a leader board that includes some of the top-ranked players in the country. Freshman Simon Reyers (Kingstown, ON/Holy Cross) is next in line for the Titans, sharing 36th place with an opening score of 73.

Detroit started the opening round off in stunning fashion, and held the tournament team lead at even par after the first six holes of play. The winds picked up, though, and the Titan fortunes began to ebb, but they stayed in the Top 10 until their last hole. They played the par-4 18th five-over as a team to fall back behind N.C. State and Duke and into the tie with Ohio Valley Conference champion Murray State at 297.

Top-seeded Stanford leads the tournament and two SEC powers, Florida and LSU, are right on the Cardinal's heels.

“Obviously we have some work to do to get back up the leader board, but a lot of good things happened today,” said Titans coach Mark Engel, whose team is making its fifth NCAA Regional appearance in the last 10 years.

“Brian really had a hot putter and it's great when your first guy off the course gives you a good score like that to start you off. Simon was pretty steady and so was Britt (Pronk, who shot 76). I know he'd like two swings back because that pretty much cost Britt four shots, but everything else went his way.”

With rain predicted for Friday, the Titans are scheduled to return to the course at 9:40 tomorrow morning when their first golfer of the day will tee off. Golfstat.com will one again provide live scoring of the 54-hole Central Regional.