Feb. 22, 2010

NEW ORLEANS - Junior Cody Blankenship fired a two-under-par 70 in the second round of the Mardi Gras Classic hosted by UNO at TPC Louisiana to lead the Louisiana Tech golf team in the first day of the 15-team event.

Blankenship's two-round total of even-par 144 ties him for eighth place out of 78 competitors and was seven strokes better than his closest teammate Matthew Harvey, who is tied for 33rd with a two-round total of 151.

As a team, head coach Jeff Parks Bulldogs are in 11th place in the event heading into Tuesday's final round.

Cody Santone (77-78=155, T49th), Jonathan Bale (79-77=156, T57th) and Joel Thelen (78-85=163, T70th) round out the LA Tech competitors in the event which features three teams ranked in the Top 50 and eight teams ranked in the Top 100 in the country.

North Carolina State leads the event with a two-round team total of 575, followed by San Diego (577), New Orleans (578), Southeastern Louisiana (584), Wichita State (589), Louisiana-Lafayette (590), Troy (591), UALR (593), Campbell (599), Liberty (600), LA Tech (605), Louisiana-Monroe (615), Austin Peay (618), Centenary (625) and Nicholls State (640).

San Diego's Alex Ching fired a six-under-par 138 to lead the individual competition.