BEND, Ore.  Whitman men's golf closed out the opening round of the Willamette (Univ.) Spring Thaw in fifth place Saturday afternoon at the Pronghorn Golf Resort. The Blues were led by top-10 placements from Eric Wasserman and Jimmy Jacobson.

The two-day event played on the par-72, 6,751-yard layout at Pronghorn concludes Sunday with an 11 a.m. shotgun start.

Whitman posted a team score of 31-over par 319, one stroke behind fourth-place Linfield College and just three back of Whitworth University and Willamette which are tied for second at 315. George Fox University tops the team leaderboard with a 21-over 309.

Wasserman posted an opening-round 77 to close Saturday in a tie for eighth place. Also playing into the top 10 was Jacobson with a six over 78 that put the sophomore in a tie for 10th.

Mario Santos-Davidson (T-20th, 81) and Charlie Schneider (T-26th, 83) rounded out the scoring positions Saturday for the Blues, while Luc Birchfield (T39th-, 90) and Matthew Bowman (45th, 100) posted non-scoring rounds.

Willamette's Kenneth Sheldon carded a 2-under 70 to take the lead on the individual leaderboard heading into Sunday, two strokes up on George Fox's Mason Koch.