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THAT TIME OF YEAR – Colorado Golf Association

Published

2 years ago

April 11, 2024

THAT TIME OF YEAR – Colorado Golf Association

Stretch run of college golf season set to begin for Colorado-based teams, with conference tournaments preceding NCAA regionals and nationals

By Gary Baines – 4/11/2024

The college golf season — at least the first portion of it — began more than seven months ago. But now it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty.

In other words, the postseason is nearly upon us. First up, there’s conference/league tournaments, followed by NCAA Regionals (for those teams and individuals that qualify), then by the national championship (again, for schools/individuals that advance).

Fields for the NCAA Regionals will be revealed on various dates in the coming weeks: April 24 for women’s Division I, April 26 for men’s Division II, April 29 for women’s DII and May 1 for men’s DI.

But today we’re focused on the conference/league tournaments for the college programs based in Colorado. Things start with the University of Northern Colorado women at the Big Sky tournament April 15-17 and ends with the University of Denver men at the Summit League shindig April 28-30.

Here are some of the essentials from those tournaments — for both NCAA Division I and II programs in the Centennial State.

BIG SKY CONFERENCE WOMEN

Dates: April 15-17

Site: The Wigwam in Litchfield Park, Ariz.

Colorado-Based Team Competing: University of Northern Colorado.

UNC National Ranking: 185th

UNC Players Ranked in Top 200 Nationally: None.

UNC Team Victories This Season: None

Notable: UNC finished fifth out of 10 teams at last year’s Big Sky meet.

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN

Dates: April 16-18

Site: Mission Hills CC in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Colorado-Based Team Competing: Colorado State University.

CSU National Ranking: 49th.

CSU Players Ranked in Top 200 Nationally: Andrea Bergsdottir 59th.

CSU Team Victories This Season: 3.

Notable: Even before the postseason, the Rams have set their single-season program record with three team victories, including two during the spring portion of the schedule. … CSU placed third out of nine teams in last year’s MWC meet. … Bergsdottir has posted top-10 finishes in her last seven college starts. … Lauren Lehigh of New Mexico, a two-time Colorado 5A state high school individual champion, will play in her final MWC tournament. She’s ranked 80th nationally in Division I.

SUMMIT LEAGUE WOMEN

Dates: April 21-23

Site: Firekeeper GC in Mayetta, Kan.

Colorado-Based Team Competing: University of Denver.

DU National Ranking: 44th

DU Players Ranked in Top 200 Nationally: Anna Zanusso 121st, Clara Gestsdottir 183rd.

DU Team Victories This Season: none.

Notable: DU won last year’s Summit League team title, marking the Pioneers’ 18th league championship in the last 19 times the tournaments have been contested. DU’s Anna Krekling captured the 2023 individual title. … The Pioneers haven’t won a tournament this season, but have finished second twice.

PAC-12 CONFERENCE WOMEN

Dates: April 21-23

Site: Palouse Ridge GC in Pullman, Wash.

Colorado-Based Team Competing: University of Colorado.

CU National Ranking: 68th

CU Players Ranked in Top 200 Nationally: Morgan Miller 140th; Sabrina Iqbal 176th.

CU Team Victories This Season: none.

Notable: This will mark the final Pac-12 Conference tournament. For its part, CU is headed to the Big 12 in 2024-25. … Anne Kelly, CU’s head coach since 1997, will conclude her college coaching career this spring as she announced her impending retirement last fall. Current CU associate head coach Madeleine Sheils will succeed Kelly at the Buffs’ helm. … The Buffs finished 11th out of 11 teams in last year’s conference meet.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN

Dates: April 21-23

Site: Boulder Creek GC in Boulder City, Nev.

Colorado-Based Teams Competing: CSU-Pueblo, Colorado Christian, Colorado Mesa, Colorado School of Mines, Fort Lewis, Regis.

Top-100 National Rankings (Div. II) for Colorado Teams: Colorado Christian 8th; CSU-Pueblo 14th; Colorado School of Mines 22nd; Colorado Mesa 27th; Fort Lewis 75th.

Colorado-Based Players Ranked in Top 100 Nationally in Division II: Adam Duncan, Colorado Christian 6th; Jamie Roberts, CSU-Pueblo 29th; Xavier Bighaus, Colorado Christian 32nd; Lucas Taggart, Colorado School of Mines 40th; Colt Tenpenny, CSU-Pueblo 56th.

Notable: CSU-Pueblo prevailed in a playoff over Colorado Christian for the league team title last year, giving the ThunderWolves their third straight RMAC championship. … Colorado Christian’s Bighaus claimed the individual title in 2023.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN

Dates: April 21-23

Site: Boulder Creek GC in Boulder City, Nev.

Colorado-Based Teams Competing: CSU-Pueblo, Colorado Christian, Colorado Mesa, Regis, MSU Denver, Fort Lewis, Adams State.

Top-100 National Rankings (Div. II) for Colorado Teams: CSU-Pueblo 42nd; Regis 79th; Colorado Christian 81st; Colorado Mesa 82nd; Metro State 91st.

Colorado-Based Player Ranked in Top 100 Nationally in Division II: Kylie Severin, CSU-Pueblo 32nd

Notable: CSU-Pueblo took home the title in the 2023 RMAC tournament, with CSUP’s Severin and Zoey Rodriguez sharing the individual crown.

BIG SKY CONFERENCE MEN

Dates: April 22-24

Site: Wigwam GC in Litchfield Park, Ariz.

Colorado-Based Team Competing: UNC

UNC National Ranking: 175th

UNC Players Ranked in Top 200 Nationally: none.

UNC Team Victories This Season: none.

Notable: UNC won the Big Sky team title last year, earning an NCAA Regionals berth. The Bears put three players in the top four individually — Jack Castiglia (2), Yuze Zhang (3) and TJ Shehee (4).

PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN

Date: April 26-28

Site: Desert Forest GC in Carefree, Ariz.

Colorado-Based Team Competing: CU

CU National Ranking: 66th

CU Players Ranked in Top 200 Nationally: none.

CU Team Victories This Season: one.

Notable: CU, bound for the Big 12 next season, will play in its final Pac-12 tournament. … The Pac-12 meet is very unusual by college golf standards in that it’s a 72-hole affair — as opposed to 54 holes for most events. … In February, the Buffs won their first large-field tournament since 2019.

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN

Date: April 26-28

Site: Emerald Valley GC in Creswell, Ore.

Colorado-Based Teams Competing: CSU and Air Force.

CSU National Ranking: 64th.

Air Force National Ranking: 253rd.

CSU/Air Force Players Ranked in Top 200 Nationally: Connor Jones, CSU 81st.

CSU/Air Force Team Victories This Season: one (CSU).

Notable: CSU placed fourth out of 11 teams at last year’s MWC meet, while Air Force was 11th. CSU’s Christoph Bleier tied for the top spot individually in regulation, but lost in a playoff. … Jones, a resident of Westminster and the 2022 CGA Player of the Year, will wrap up his college career this spring.

SUMMIT LEAGUE MEN

Date: April 28-30

Site: Covered Bridge GC in Sellersburg, Ind.

Colorado-Based Team Competing: DU

DU National Ranking: 218th.

DU Players Ranked in Top 200 Nationally: none.

DU Team Victories This Season: none.

Notable: DU finished runner-up out of 10 teams at the Summit League meet last year.

About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com

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Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild

Published

9 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild

The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.

It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.

Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.

“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”

Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.

The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.

“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.

“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”

Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.

That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.

Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.

Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.

“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.

“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”

Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.

Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.

Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.

That was Necas’ 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.

It’s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country’s record for points at the event.

MacKinnon missed Colorado’s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.

McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.

Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas’ second goal to seal the Wild’s sixth win in a row.

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Firefighters stop spread of wildfire in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon

Published

21 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Firefighters stop spread of wildfire in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon

Updated on: February 26, 2026 / 1:18 PM MST
/ CBS Colorado

Late Thursday morning, a house fire spreading into the nearby woods in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon prompted officials to issue a pre-evacuation order to nearby residents. Firefighters have since brought the blaze under control.

According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, a house fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. in the 10600 block of Ralston Creek Road in Golden Gate Canyon, located around 25 miles west of Denver. The fire then began to spread into the nearby trees and grass.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office

Multiple fire units quickly responded to the scene, and the JCSO issued a pre-evacuation notice to all residents within a three-mile radius, warning them to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.

At 12:34 p.m., the sheriff’s office announced that the fire is no longer spreading and the burn area has been contained to less than an acre. A photo shared by JCSO shows a structure nearly completely destroyed by the fire.

Pre-evacuation orders were lifted around 1 p.m.

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Toyota Game Recap: 2/25/2026 | Colorado Avalanche

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Toyota Game Recap: 2/25/2026 | Colorado Avalanche

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