Targeting a 316 at the challenging Aldeen Golf Course in Rockford, the Monmouth men's golf team hit their mark for the opening round of the Midwest Conference Men's Golf Championships.
     
The Scots sit just 13 strokes back of first round leader Lake Forest which carded a 303, a stroke better than Knox and two ahead of Illinois College. Monmouth is in fifth, trailing fourth-place St. Norbert by a stroke.
     
Nate Hopper led Monmouth over the first 18 holes with a 75, one of two Scots in the 70s, tying Hopper for sixth place after Day 1. Sixth-man Mason Ely carded a 79 for the Scots' No. 2 score on Thursday, two strokes ahead of the scoring rounds of Nate Monroe and Sam Gillen who each carded 81s. Logan Moothart and Luke Long rounded out Monmouth's six-man team with a pair of non-scoring 84s.
     
Play resumes Friday at 10 a.m.