The No. 25 Arizona men’s golf team is once again in the middle of the pack after opening with identical scores of 280 for the first two rounds of the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate yesterday in Birmingham, Ala., good for an 8-under-par total.

The Wildcats are currently tied for seventh place out of 12 competing teams, a situation similar to their opener in the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate in late September, when they finished 11th out of 21 teams.

UA assistant coach John Knauer said the team could have played better but made too many mistakes. Yet he said he is encouraged by the team’s effort and believes his team is moving in the right direction.

“”We’ve definitely gotten better since the first tournament,”” he said.

The Wildcats shot 4-under par in both rounds and trail the tournament’s leader, No. 7 Alabama, by 16 strokes.

Junior Travis Esway led the Wildcats after two rounds, shooting a 3-under 68 in the first round and a 1-over 72 in the second. Sophomore Ben Fox finished the first day at 1-under par 70.

Junior Trey Denton and freshman Pedro Oriol both finished the day at even par 71 after 36-holes.

Knauer described the par-71, 6,958-yard course as being in “”awesome condition.”” He said the reason teams are shooting such low scores is because the “”weather is absolutely perfect.””

The tournament resumes today with the teams playing their final 18 holes. Arizona will tee off at 8:50 a.m. Central time.

Although victory is almost certainly out of the question with only one round remaining, Knauer said he believes that fourth place is a realistic goal if the team plays well and cuts down on mistakes.