WATERLOO - One day removed from setting a competitive course record, Iowa State senior-to-be Ben Herrera made a 4-under-par 68 look routine Tuesday in the 107th Iowa Amateur Championship at Sunnyside Country Club.

In doing so, the Cyclones' standout is in the midst of one of the most dominating performances since the state's top amateur tournament went to stroke play in 1960.

Herrera entered today's final round at 12-under, carding his 68 after firing a 64 on Monday.

After recording the low score for a second consecutive day, he holds an eight stroke cushion over second-place Tyler Johnson - a senior-to-be at the University of Northern Iowa. Four time Iowa Amateur champion Mike McCoy sits nine strokes back in third.

"An eight-shot lead, you don't expect that at all," Herrera said before pausing to find the right words to describe what he just accomplished Tuesday evening. "I don't know, I might play a little different (today), but it's not going to be much different because I'm really confident in my game."

At 12-under, Herrera needs to shoot even-par today to break Gene Elliott's 54-hole record for the lowest score in an amateur championship set in 2000 at Ottumwa Country Club. Herrera was paired with Elliott and Waterloo's Nathan Leary again Tuesday in a group consisting of this summer's top three in the Iowa Player of the Year rankings.

"I grew up at Glen Oaks admiring Gene's game and watching him play," Herrera said. "Now he's kind of seen me grow up and get my game to where it is now. It's cool playing with the good players. You want to play with them and you want to measure yourself against the best players. Leary and Elliott, they're two of the best players in the state."

Herrera has put a premium on driving through his the first two days of competition. Tuesday he birdied all four par 5's and offset three bogeys with a birdies on the par 4, 12th and seventh holes and the par 3, 17th. He's birdied 16 of 36 holes.

"I've really just taken advantage of the easier holes," Herrera said. "Today the birdies I made were nothing fancy. I two-putted a couple and chipped it close on the par 5's. Some of the shorter holes I hit it close. I made some really silly, sloppy bogeys. I had a really good opportunity to be 65, 64 just like yesterday, but I'm happy."

Johnson, the Iowa Golf Association Match Play champion, moved into second place Tuesday with a 3-under 69. After playing in the morning and moving to 4-under 140 for the tournament, he still realized that only one person may have a say in the tournament's outcome.

"Right now the meet is definitely in (Herrera's) hands," he said. "All we can do is post good numbers and see what he does."

McCoy, who's contending for a slot on the Walker Cup this summer, also found himself back in the mix for his fifth Iowa Amateur title with a 69 Tuesday that moved him to 3-under 141. He's played tournaments throughout the nation this summer, and says the Waterloo private golf course more than holds its own.

"The ball is bouncing pretty good here and the greens are really, really quick so it's been a lot of fun," he said. "The golf course is in exceptional shape. … This has been the best conditioned (course) I've played all year, it really has."

Sunnyside member Tom Christensen was the top Cedar Valley player heading into today's final round. He sat tied for fifth at 1-under 143 (70-73). Also at the Iowa Amateur Championships on Tuesday, Marion's Bradley George recorded a hole-in-one of the 155-yard, par 3 eighth hole. George was tied for 25th at 149.

Players with scores of 155 or better made the 60-man cut.

1. Ben Herrera 64-68 - 132

2. Tyler Johnson 71-69 - 140

3. Mike McCoy 72-69 - 141

4. Ben Peters 70-72 - 142

T5. Dustin Drenth 71-72 - 143

T5. Tom Christensen 70-73 - 143

7. Jake Weeber 73-71 - 144

T8. Chris Brant 74-71 - 145

T8. Gene Elliott 73-72 - 145

T8. Adam Seitz 70-75 - 145

T11. 146 - Tom Lathrop, Michael Wuertz

T13. 147 - Josh Manske, Cody Schweinefus, Jeff Panek, Justin Weber, Nathan Leary

T18. 148 - Cory Braunschweig, Mike Oimoen, Nathan McCoy, Kirby Pettitt, Ron Peterson, Cory Bruanschweig, Robb Pomerantz, Marc Gladson

T25. 149 - Bradley George, Kyle Bermel, Bill Manske, Aaron Stevens, Scott Morgensen

T30. 150 - Blake Waller, Andrew Peter

T32. 151 - Terry Cook, Jim Butler, Zach Steffen, Brian Verduyn, Michael Schuchmann, Jon Brown

T38. 152 - John Thompson, Mason Linn, Brent Goodenow, David Studer, Carl Johnson, Jon Tink

T44. 153 - Gary Jacobson, Sam Zoake, Mike Ketcham, Alex Jarnagin, Dan Dalziel, Todd Sapp, JD Anderson, Troy Hoffman, Nate Dunn

T53. 154 - Joe Palmer, Curtis Holck, Jonathan Rogers, Justin Leas, Bret Taylor, Eric Anfinson, Sam Aossey

T60. 155 - Jonathan Haedt, Brett Deneve, Frank Schmidt, Matt Mickelson, Rob Lynch, Nate Steege, Neil Doak, Matt Sargent, Aaron Smith, Michael Wetrich, Jared Doerfler, Tom Staack

Missed cut

156 - Mike Compiano, Alex Hansche, Dan Mulligan, Neil Malenke, Jim Currell, Jacob Sitzmann

157 - Dan Naughton, TJ Des Camps, Ty Stewart, Brent Messmore

158 - Chris Lovell, Kirby Brown, Zack Anderson, Mike McCunniff

159 - Andrew Toivonen, Tim Taylor, Dave Schurke, Todd Hingtgen, Bob Hansen Jr., David Sturve, Gary Ritter, Joe Paxson

160 - Bill Douglas, Mike Slavin, Dave Akers, Ben Juffer, Ben Klostermann, Mark Mershon, Matt Skahill, Peter Strothkamp

161 - Autin Nedelcoff, Cam Jacobs, Tim Ward, KC Doland, CJ Gaston

162 - J.B. Spillane, Joel Greteman, Brian Nigg, Brandon Cheek

163 - Robert McCloskey, Michael Rickford

164 - John Peters, Kyle Menke, Keith Duenow, Ryan Horner

165 - Joel Winters, Levi Slings, Jared Walahoski, Jared Kvidera, Jeff Petersen, Dave Craft

166 - Brian Waller, A Johansen, Austin Morrow, Mark Creveling, Pat Ryan, John O'Hair, Jason Klein

167 - Jim Campbell, John Ryan.

168 - Kevin Wynn, Chris Sturdivant, Cory Watson

169 - Jacob Bermel

170 - Tom Payne, Mike Doyle, Justin Holm

172 - Justin Smith, Ben Pauley, Craig Lindsay

173 - Eric Peyton, Mart Wall

174 - Brandon McElhiney

176 - Tom Norton, Chris Wagner

178 - Josh Witt, Neil Bolstad, Quinn Sturdivant

179 - Kirby Schmidt, Jack Griffin

181 - James Hurning

182 - Scott Bohlender

185 - Cory Jansen

188 - David Brown

199 - Clay Smith, Dan Hodges