State College, Pa., April 30, 2004 ¨C The Penn State Men¡¯s Golf team carded a 289-292 =581 in the opening two rounds of the 28th annual Rutherford Intercollegiate Golf Tournament today. The Nittany Lions finished the day¡¯s action in fourth place among the 15 competing teams and were led by juniors Greg Pieczynski (72-69-141; Kingston, Pa.) and Mark Leon (70-72-142; Brampton, Ontario) who finished in respective seventh and 11th place ties. Competing individually, Andrew Price (Mission Viejo, Ca.) enters Saturday in a tie for 14th place after firing a 70-73-143.

Also finishing the second round among the top 50 were Ted Neville (74-75-149; Oklahoma City, Okla.) in a tie for 38th place; Jason Pannone (East Greenwich, RI) ended the day in a tie for 41st place; and Joseph Hyden (71-80-151; Saltsfobaden, Sweden) and David Dankmyer (75-76-151; Gibsonia, Pa.) competed individually to tie for 48th place.

Marco Poccia (Saratoga Springs, NY) carded an 8-over 152 to finish in a 54th place tie, while Brian Fitzpatrick (78-79-157; Harrison, NY) and Rafael Toro (79-83-162; San Juan Puerto Rico) competed individually for respective 75th and 80th place performances.

Penn State will look to catch first-place Towson, which fired a tournament-best 282-287-569. Rounding out the top five were James Madison (287-289-576), George Mason (292-286-578), Penn State and Maryland (281-300-581). The Nittany Lions have won the tournament 12 consecutive times and have shot progressively lower 54-hole scores in each of the last five tournaments.