Stanford's Franklin Huang
(Stanford Athletics Photo)

Seventh-ranked Stanford, 4-under, are the leaders by seven at Stanford Golf Course after Maverick McNealy, Franklin Huang and Brandon Wu all turn in sub-par rounds.

McNealy, once again searching for his program best 12th medalist title, is presently tied for second and at 3-under he is one off the lead. On Thursday McNealy started off his day with a bogey but from then on he played spotless with four birdies, including consecutive tweets on Nos. 10 and 11.

For Huang, also 3-under and tied for second, it was a day of mostly ups and some downs. The downs came in the form of a bogey and double-bogey but fortunately there were more ups, chiefly the string of three straights birdies from Nos. 14-16. Huang also carded 4th, 7th and 10th hole birdies.

The final under-par Cardinal was Brandon Wu, and in the first round he highlighted his day with an eagle on the par-5 7th.

"We're excited about today's start against a good field," said Stanford head coach Conrad Ray. "The conditions were very testy, and we're happy that the guys were able to control their ball flight and maintain their composure. We got through the first six holes in good shape -- it was a tough stretch into the wind on a tough part of the golf course. We're looking forward to another tough test tomorrow."

In the individual race Corey Pereira of Washington is out in front. Pereira posted a 4-under 66 on Thursday to move in front.

Starting on the back nine, Pereira turned in 5-under 30 and got as low as 6-under with a birdie on the 215 yard par-3 before disaster struck. After cruising along for much of the day Pereira carded consecutive double-bogeys only to rebound a bit with two birdies on the way to the house.

With 36-holes still remaining Pereira leads the Stanford duo by a shot and then Ethan Freeman (Colorado), Drew McCullough (Wyoming), Frank Garber (Washington) and Wu by three shots as they sit in third at 1-under.

The top-five of the team standings are Washington (+3) in second, SMU (+4) in third, No. 5 USC (+5) in fifth and BYU (+8) in fifth.

-Stanford Athletics contributed to this story