More than 20 Coloradans have qualified for prestigious IMG Academy Junior Worlds, with more to come
By Gary Baines – 6/7/2022
Twenty-two Coloradans qualified last week for arguably the country’s most prestigious junior tournaments this side of the USGA championships — the IMG Academy Junior World Championships, which will be held July 12-15 in the San Diego area.
Those advancing to the Junior Worlds include the national champion in the chip portion of the Drive, Chip & Putt Finals (Sophia Capua of Aurora); two other past participants in the DCP National Finals (Judd Nikkel of Fort Collins and Grady Ortiz of Colorado Springs); and a recent girls state high school champion (Maddy Bante of Englewood).
Another 2022 girls state champ, Hadley Ashton of Erie, also will compete at the Junior Worlds but didn’t have to go through qualifying. She earned a spot based on her overall record. Ashton, now 14, finished 15th in her age group at the international event last year.
Meanwhile, Tyler Long of Evergreen qualified for the boys 15-18 competition a year after placing 12th in the 13-14 event in San Diego.
(Updated June 15) Another Colorado-based qualifying event was held June 14 for kids age 7-10 at South Suburban’s Family Sports Center. The qualifiers from that are also noted below.
Here are the Colorado qualifiers from this month:
BOYS 15-18
May 31-June 1 at Colorado National GC
Tyler Long, Evergreen 73-66–139
Traejan Andrews, Greeley 71-70–141
Charlie Tucker, Castle Pines 74-69–143
Reese Knox, Peyton 74-69–143
GIRLS 15-18
June 2-3 at CommonGround GC
Kaitlin Zingler, Lakewood 73-71–144
Logan Hale, Eagle 77-71–148
Emily Cheng, Colorado Springs 78-71–149
Maddy Bante, Englewood 76-73–149
BOYS 13-14
June 2 at CommonGround GC
Andre Dumonteil, Centennial 66
Clint Summers III, Fort Collins 69
Austin Hunt, Highlands Ranch 70
Elijah Johnson, Denver 71
GIRLS 13-14
June 3 at CommonGround GC
Addison Hines, Arvada 80
Sophia Capua, Aurora 81
CheyAnne Schrick, Timnath 83
Brynn Balliet, Thornton 83
BOYS 11-12
June 2 at CommonGround GC
Grady Ortiz, Colorado Springs 76
Braylon Ball, Windsor 81
Judd Nikkel, Fort Collins 82
Jeffrey Chen, Aurora 82
GIRLS 11-12
June 3 at CommonGround GC
Maddie Makino, Parker 76
Landry Frost, Colorado Springs 79
BOYS 9-10
June 14 at Family Sports
Eli Dawson, Windsor 31
Doro Wilcox, Denver 31
Crew Ortiz, Colorado Springs 31
GIRLS 9-10
June 14 at Family Sports
Brynn Host, Columbine Valley 46
Grace Assell, Centennial 54
BOYS 7-8
June 14 at Family Sports
Jacob Eagan, Castle Rock 30
Jordan Rhodes 38
GIRLS 7-8
June 14 at Family Sports
Madelyn Dickerson, Aurora 38
Ellie Casas, Aurora 38
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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