CSU-Pueblo men, Colorado Christian women claim RMAC titles; Coloradans Lauren Lehigh and Kelsey Webster shine in DI tourneys
By Gary Baines – 4/20/2022
The first five college golf conference championships have wrapped up for Colorado-based programs, producing two team titles and two individual championships — along with two other top-5 individual showings in Division I events — for local schools.
Claiming team championships were Colorado State University-Pueblo (men’s Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) and Colorado Christian University (women’s RMAC Championship).
Local golfers also landed individual titles in both the men’s and women’s RMAC — Rio Newcombe of UCCS and Colorado Christian’s Faith Kilgore.
And recording top-5s in DI tournaments were Coloradans Lauren Lehigh (New Mexico, third in the women’s Mountain West) and Kelsey Webster (Oregon State, fifth in the women’s Pac-12).
The CSU Pueblo men claimed their second consecutive RMAC golf title, giving the Thunderwolves an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II Super Regionals that they’ll help host at Pueblo Country Club May 5-7. CSU-Pueblo prevailed by 10 strokes over University of Colorado-Colorado Springs in the RMAC event that concluded on Tuesday in Chandler, Ariz. Newcombe, a freshman from UCCS (69-69-68) earned the individual title, with CSU-Pueblo’s Andrew Ni sharing second with Zach Dallimore of Westminster College of Utah. SCORES
In the women’s RMAC tournament, also held in Chandler, Ariz., Colorado Christian landed its first RMAC team championship and made it a sweep with Kilgore winning the individual title. In the team race, CCU earned the automatic berth to DII regionals (May 2-4 in Stockton, Calif.) by prevailing by eight over UCCS at the RMAC tournament, where the 882 total was a record for the event. Kilgore, the nation’s seventh-ranked female golfer in DII, went 72-73-68 for a 3-under total to edge UCCS’ Julia Baroth by one. SCORES
Elsewhere:
Women’s Mountain West April 18-20 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. — Lehigh, a product of Loveland, seems to love the Women’s MWC. A year after finishing second individually after being in a playoff at the conference meet, Lehigh tied for third on Wednesday. Her 74-69-73 performance left her 10 behind champion Natasha Andrea Oon of San Jose State. Colorado State, led by Lacey Uchida (15th), placed eighth out of nine teams. SCORES
Pac-12 Women April 18-20 in Eugene, Ore. — Webster, a resident of Boulder who transferred from the University of Colorado to Oregon State, placed a college-career-best fifth individually, going 73-74-71 to end up eight behind winner Hsin-Yu Lu of Oregon. CU’s Hailey Schalk (73-74-74) finished 13th as the Buffs were ninth out of 11 teams. SCORES
Women’s Big Sky April 18-20 in Scottsdale, Ariz. — Northern Colorado ended up sixth out of 11 teams in the Big Sky. Individually, the Bears were led by Maria Vallejo (25th). SCORES
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. He was voted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2021. Email: ColoradoGolfJournal@mac.com)
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