HUMBLE, Texas -- Midwestern State's Seth Bearden continued his mastery of the course at the Golf Club of Houston Monday afternoon in the Houston Classic.

The junior from Crowell, Texas, carded a pair of 69s to make his way back to the top of the leaderboard with a two-stroke lead over Central Oklahoma teammates Baylor Bostick and Nicholas Canales as well as Harding's Christian Lindgreen.

"His ball striking was great and he never got a bogey in the second round," MSU coach Jeff Ray said. "He doesn't make any great mistakes off of the tee box and puts himself in a position to score."

Bearden claimed the individual title last year at the Houston Classic, firing scores of 72, 71, and 69 for a 4-under 212, which means he now played all five rounds at the former of the Shell Classic with par-or-better scores.

Bearden carded five birdies in the opening round, then went bogey-free with three more birdies in the second circuit.

"This is a championship golf course and he just thinks his way around it," Ray said. "He just picks the right time to be aggressive and has a great understanding of the game. Back-to-back wins on this course with this kind of field, would be impressive."

Sophomore Hank Germany and freshman Ryan Griff fired matching scores of 74 and 76 to tie for 32nd with a 6-over total of 150, while senior James Perry also provided a pair of countable scores by logging a 74 and 77 for a 7-over 151 to tie for 46th.

Senior Gatlin Goad (75-79) is tied for 62nd with a 10-over total of 154.

Central Oklahoma tops the team leaderboard with a 7-under 569 after carding team totals of 289 and 280.

The Bronchos are trailed by Harding (578/+2), West Texas A&M (581/+5), and Oklahoma Christian (587/+11), while MSU and Arkansas Tech are tied for fifth with a 13-over, 36-hole total of 589.

The final round of the Houston Classic begins with a shotgun start Tuesday at 7:30 a.m.
 

Houston Classic

Team Leaderboard

Pos	Team	To Par	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Central Oklahoma	-7	289	280	---	569
2	Harding (Ark.)	+2	286	292	---	578
3	West Texas A&M	+5	295	286	---	581
4	Oklahoma Christian	+11	295	292	---	587
5	Midwestern State	+13	291	298	---	589
	Arkansas Tech	+13	299	290	---	589
7	Missouri-St. Louis	+22	302	296	---	598
8	Dallas Baptist	+23	309	290	---	599
9	Arkansas-Fort Smith	+26	307	295	---	602
10	Southern Arkansas	+27	303	300	---	603
11	Cameron (Okla.)	+29	304	301	---	605
12	Southern Nazarene (Okla.)	+31	300	307	---	607
13	Henderson State (Ark.)	+38	310	304	---	614
14	Mississippi College	+40	325	291	---	616
15	Arkansas-Monticello	+42	311	307	---	618
16	Rogers State (Okla.)	+45	318	303	---	621

  

Individual Leaderboard

Pos	Player	Team	To Par	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Seth Bearden	Midwestern State	-6	69	69	--	138
2	Baylor Bostick	Central Oklahoma	-4	74	66	--	140
	Christian Lindgreen	Harding	-4	67	73	--	140
	Nicholas Canales	Central Oklahoma	-4	67	73	--	140
5	Hudson Weibel (Ind.)	Houston	-3	70	71	--	141
6	Laurenz Schiergen (Ind.)	Houston	-2	70	72	--	142
	Leandro Mihaich	Oklahoma Christian	-2	74	68	--	142
8	Aston Castillo	Dallas Baptist	-1	74	69	--	143
	Joey Lewis (Ind.)	Oklahoma Christian	-1	72	71	--	143
	Jose Rozas	West Texas A&M	-1	69	74	--	143
	Oskari Nikku	Oklahoma Christian	-1	71	72	--	143
	Shaun Jones	Arkansas Tech	-1	74	69	--	143

 

Midwestern State Scorecards

T5	Midwestern State	+13	291	298	---	589
Place	Player	To Par	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Seth Bearden (1)	-6	69*	69*	--	138
T32	Hank Germany (5)	+6	74*	76*	--	150
T32	Ryan Griff (4)	+6	74*	76*	--	150
T46	James Perry (2)	+7	74*	77*	--	151
T62	Gatlin Goad (3)	+10	75	79	--	154