After starting out solidly in Tuesday’s opening round of the NCAA Championships in West Lafayette, Ind., the Stanford women’s golf team struggled on Wednesday, shooting a 33-over par 321. The score dropped the team down the leaderboard into 19th place out of 24 teams.

While the Cardinal struggled, No. 3 Southern California maintained its narrow lead on the rest of the field. The Trojans, who led No. 2 Oklahoma State by a mere four shots after the fist day of competition, fired a solid round of 303 on Wednesday.

Oklahoma State, however, was up to the task, shooting 302,and narrowing the gap to just three strokes. The rest of the top five teams are tightly packed with No. 4 Pepperdine just five shots off the lead and No. 17 Ohio State just eight back.

No. 8 Auburn and No. 10 Florida are tied for fifth place, 12 shots behind front-running USC.

In the individual competition, Oklahoma State’s Annie Thurman showed that her first-round 73 was no fluke, as she backed it up with a 74 on Wednesday. At 3-over par for the tournament, Thurman leads Washington State’s Kim Welch by just a single shot.

Duke’s Virada Nirapathpongporn, the first-day leader and defending national champion, shot 77 on the second day, dropping back into a tie for eighth place overall.

For Stanford, senior Kim Rowton led the way again, firing a 77. She slid back a bit from her early perch in third place, ending Wednesday’s round in the six-player logjam at eighth place.

Sophomore Wendra Liang made a nice comeback after a rough first round. Her 79 on Wednesday moved her up from the depths of 92nd place into a tie for 83rd.

Junior Angela Rho shot 82, dropping precipitously from 36th place to a tie for 72nd. Junior Kim Kouwabunpat recorded an 83, and currently stands at 94th place overall.

Freshman Kelly Husted matched Kouwabunpat’s score, losing ground and landing in a tie for 85th place.

This year’s championship has been marked by unusual controversy, as the NCAA has tried to enforce a pace-of-play rule. California’s Ria Quiazon was given a one-stroke penalty for slow play during Wednesday’s round.

It is the only event of the year that is governed by such a rule.

“I think it’s ridiculous that we have to go around in really windy conditions playing in four hours,” said Mikaela Parmlid of Southern California. “I never read putts from both ways, because you have 40 seconds.”

The event continues today, with Stanford teeing off during the morning tee times.