PUEBLO WEST — As Falcon’s Reese Knox walked off the ninth green at Desert Hawk golf course, he looked to his dad and complained about his putting.
So on the back nine, he decided to hole shots out rather than putt them. In a two-hole span he hit one fairway, one green in regulation and just a single putt while shaving three strokes of his score. By the time he got to the clubhouse he had carded a 3-under-par 69 to claim the Class 4A Region 1 title.
A big piece of that round came as he chipped in for eagle at the par-5 12th and holed out from a greenside bunker on 13. That stretched helped him fall back to around even where Coronado’s Noah Keller lingered most of the day.
“On the front I was lipping (putts) out a bit,” Knox said. “By the time I got to the back I just decided I was going to play golf and not worry about the score. I started playing and just fell into the moment. I started chipping in and getting some lucky breaks.”
His approach shot from the rough on No. 2 landed inches from the hole for his first birdie of the day, but his ensuing tee shot was out of bounds resulting in a double-bogey. He bogeyed No. 4 before making a birdie on the par-3 fifth and eventually made the turn at 1-over. He played the first six holes on the back at 4-under with a par and a bogey before coasting to three pars in the final three holes.
Pueblo West held off Falcon by three strokes to claim the team regional championship. The Cyclones got solid performances from Toby Sailnas and Noah Wagner at last year’s 4A tournament at the Bridges. They’ll head to the Country Club of Colorado looking to make another run at a state title and coach Dan Sanchez thinks the experience from last year is key.
“In all high school sports, if you’ve been in those pressure situations and you’ve felt the struggle, to me that’s what it’s all about,” Sanchez said.
It was announced last week that the 4A state tournament was moving to the Country Club of Colorado but for several players from all around the state, there is a feeling of excitement when it comes to qualifying for the tournament and getting a chance to play a new venue with new players to compete with.
“Today was fun, I had never really met these guys,” Durango junior Levi Tichi said. “I had played (Eisenhower) once or twice, it was my freshman year regional course. I was happy to hear about the change to the Country Club of Colorado because I’ve been struggling with putting all year.”
Not that the greens at CC of C are a cakewalk, but Eisenhower has proven to be one of the toughest putting courses in all of the front range. Regardless of the venue, the qualifiers from the Desert Hawk regional will get back to work on Tuesday with an eye on competing at state.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
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Regionals elsewhere:
St. Mary’s claims team title at 3A Region 2
With two players finishing in the top three, St. Mary’s came away with a regional team title at Murphy Creek. Kent Denver’s Jeffrey Zhou shot 73 to claim medalist honors.
Sterling and Eaton send teams to Dos Rios
Sterling and Eaton each grabbed a pair of top 10 finishers at 3A Region 3 at Boomerang Golf Links. The Tigers won the team title as senior Trey Kuntz finished second overall with a 73. Strasburg’s Jacob Gilbert won the individual title.
Ford tames Country Club of Colorado
Discovery Canyon’s Kaden Ford was laughing the last time he played the Country Club of Colorado, calling it the “worst ball-striking day of my life.”
The result was much better at regionals. Ford claimed the individual championship at the Country Club of Colorado. Cheyenne Mountain won the team title as Ponderosa took second.
Rock Canyon’s team finishes under par at Raccoon Creek
Nick Fallin led the way with a 65 as Rock Canyon grabbed the individual and team regional titles at Raccoon Creek. Overall, five players shot under par at the tournament.
Ralston Valley’s Gage Messingham led Ralston Valley with a 67 and the Mustangs finished second to get their team to state.
Fossil Ridge edges Pine Creek at Hyland Hills
Lengend’s Ryan Parker claimed the 5A Northern regional title at Hyland Hills with a 71. Pine Creek’s Wesley Erling matched him, but ultimately finished second.
Fossil Ridge claimed the team title by beating out Pine Creek by just two strokes.
PUEBLO — At first glance the Manitou Mustang Invite looked like any other boys golf tournament for St. Mary’s senior Luke Calvin. He navigated his way around the course fairly efficiently.
He hit good shots and he hit some bad shots. Such is golf.
But inside, he was going through an emotional battle. When he stepped on the the tee box for the first shot of the tournament, it was his first competition since his mother passed away from her battle with cancer.
He and the other competitors in the field pinned green and white ribbons to their hats during the round. The other teams in the field might have been battling against the Pirates, but they were more than happy to stand with a colleague and show support.
“It keeps things in perspective,” Primero’s Lance Peters said. “There’s no way to know how he feels and it has to be tough to do that.”
In some ways, it’s admirable that Calvin chose to play. There would have been no shame for him to sit out and gather himself before coming back to the team and helping the Pirates make a run at the Tri-Peaks League championship.
But Calvin loves golf. And his mother knew it. While his decision was admittedly tough, he nas no doubt he made right one.
“I know my mom would’ve wanted me to play,” he said. “So I toughed it out and got out here today.”
He didn’t just tough it out. He put together a top three finish. He shot a nine-over-par 79 to finish third and as just one of three players in the field to stay under 80. Peters got the tournament win with a 76 and Calvin’s teammate Peter Stinar shot a 78.
The best part of Calvin’s game was navigating the slippery greens at the Pueblo Country Club. While many players were left confused or frustrated, Calvin had this tendency to put the ball in the cup or at least keep it within gimme range.
“My chipping and putting wasn’t so bad,” Calvin said. “I’m pretty sure my mom willed in a few putts for me to make sure I broke 80.”
The Pirates claimed the team championship at the event thanks to Stinar and Calvin staying under 80 and RJ Davis shooting 81.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
But more than his team getting a win, Calvin will remember seeing opposing players and opposing coaches pin a ribbon onto their hats and know that it was a sign of support directed at him.
“It was huge,” Calvin said. “It had me in tears this morning to see the support from everybody. Everybody that loved my mom and everybody in this community that just through golf that has always supported me. And it’s huge to see it from people who didn’t know my mom and just wanted to support me.”
As Peter alluded to, it’s also something that has helped Calvin and everyone play with a different perspective than before. The goal is always to go out, compete and hopefully win. But during Monday’s round they appreciated the opportunity to be able to do so and made sure to savor every minute.
“I definitely wanted to come out and play well because everybody was supporting me,” Calvin said. “I didn’t want to let anybody down, which I know I wouldn’t have, but I wanted to show everybody a good round.”
And that’s what he did through the course of an emotional day. He smiled when he needed to, he maintained his focus and he always kept his mother on his mind. And in some key moments on some tricky greens, his putts willed their way into the hole.
TRINIDAD — Lamar’s Jimmy Clark didn’t have to make a run down the stretch, he just needed to have a steady hand.
And that’s exactly what he had. He played the last three holes even to get his second win of the boys golf season. He fired a 5-over-par 77 at the Trinidad Municipal Golf Course to claim the first Tri-Peaks League tournament of the year.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
St. Mary’s won the team championship as senior Peter Stinar finished second on the leaderboard with a 78. Lamar was 25 shots behind the Pirates and finished second.
Clark played the front nine at 3-over and faltered on just two holes. On the par-5 first in which his wayward drive hit a tree and bounced in the nine fairway. He then made double-bogey on the tricky par-3 seventh.
His only birdie of the day came on the 18 hole, but it was timely as it put him just one stroke behind Stinar. The St. Mary’s standout, also a winner in the young season, then made double-bogey on 18 to end his day putting Clark in the driver seat.
Clark made a two-putt par on No. 1 to seal his victory.
Lamar’s Jimmy Clark wins the first Tri-Peaks boys golf tournament with this par putt. He shot a 5-over-par 77. St. Mary’s senior Peter Stinar finishes second with a 78. #coprepspic.twitter.com/Ig1oC4KvIT
Prairie View senior Jeff Nelson was in a groove at Coyote Creek. At Monday’s EMAC North tournament, Nelson was comfortably in red numbers as he fired a 4-under-par 67 to claim the win.
He shot even on the front nine before blitzing the back nine, making four birdies in a row and going on a run of five birdies over eight holes.
Brighton sophomore Kyle Leydon also ended his day under par after shooting 70. He was 2-under on the front and even made an eagle on the par-5 12th. Bogeys on 10 and 11 and a double-bogey on 16 hurt his chances to to hang with Nelson.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Liberty’s Hayden Woelk knew he he needed to make par on the home hole to give himself a chance. A fortunate bounce off his tee shot put him 152 yards out from the 18th pin at the Colorado Springs Country Club.
Ever so smoothly, he drew back his 8-iron and flushed it, sending his ball on a path directly toward the flagstick. It hit about 10 feet and he would two-putt to finish with a 1-under-par 70 to claim medalist honors at the Doherty Spartan Invite.
He would’ve like to make his birdie putt, but it was his approach shot that all but guaranteed his victory. He knew it when the ball was in the air and let loose a saucy club twirl, the golfer’s language meaning the ball is Lansing at or near the intended target. It was so good that new Liberty coach Tom Carricato smiled and told Woelk “you hit a shot like that, you can spin the club however you want.”
The junior hit 13 of 14 fairways through the day, including a bomb of a drive off the seventh tee. He rarely got himself into trouble and he worked his way around the track more efficiently than any other golfer in attendance.
“I knew I was hitting the ball well enough enough to play well today,” he said. “I struggled on No. 8 a bit and made double, but I was putting well and I knew I was hitting well to score a good round today.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)The Spartan Invite was the first golf tournament for a lot of Colorado Springs metro area schools. With a bit of an adjustment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teammates were grouped together as opposed to being spread out and paired with players from other teams who perhaps had similar skill sets.
“It’s hard and it’s kind of hard to focus,” St. Mary’s senior Peter Stinar said. “You’re around all your buddies and it’s definitely different. It doesn’t feel like a tournament as much as it does just playing a round with your friends.”
It wouldn’t be a surprise if teammates were paired regularly throughout the course of the season, but that will not be the case at regionals or state.
The trick for the kids is having to adjust to playing with the same guys that they practice with in some tournaments while playing in a more traditional format in others. The team groupings worked well for Cheyenne Mountain, who shot 222 as a team to claim the team championship at the event for the second year around.
“This group is close,” Cheyenne Mountain coach John Carricato said. “They’re a tight group, they compete with each other and they also do it in the right way where they encourage and they’re their No. 1 cheerleaders. From a coaching perspective, I loved seeing that camaraderie.”
Pine Creek sophomore Wesley Erling had a bit of an up and down day but put together a round of 71 to be one of two players at even or better. He erased a double-bogey on No. 3 with back-to-back birdies on eight and nine. His lone birdie on the back nine came on the par-5 15th, but he followed it up with a bogey on 16.
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Durango’s Tichi overcomes slow start to claim Wildcat Invitational
According to Durango junior Levi Tichi, opening his round with a bogey is his signature move. Oddly, it makes him feel more comfortable.
Just for good measure at the Fruita Monument Wildcat Invitational he opted for two bogeys in the first three holes.
Then he got serious. He went five under over his next six holes at Adobe Creek National Golf Course, including an eagle on the par-5 fifth. He finished the day with a 67 to get a big win in the young boys golf season.
“I knew I had to be pretty patient and wait for birdies and not push too much,” he said. “I made that birdie on four and hit my approach to like three feet. I followed that up with an eagle and I chipped it in. That chip-in was when I knew I was starting to play well.”
Tichi was the only Demon under par and the team finished second overall to Montrose, the three-time defending state champions. Grand Junction senior Carson Kerr (71) was the only other individual to play the Wildcat Invitational under par.
Basketball has a way of connecting people on a global scale. The uniform rules and poetic simplicity of the game has a way of eliciting the same emotional reactions in kids all over, whether it’s from the United States or a country such as Uganda.
Recently, a group of of girls basketball players from Colorado decided that they could use basketball as a means of connecting with those in countries less fortunate than America.
Spearheaded by Colorado Springs School assistant girls basketball coach Caleb Strickland, the Crossover for Change Foundation was established.
The mission is straightforward: “Fostering confidence, empowerment and leadership for young women in Uganda through the sport of basketball.”
“Eric Richter – the father of Cameron Richter, one of the girls involved – has been going over and volunteering in hospitals and doing workshops in western Uganda for about seven years now,” Strickland said. “Somebody gave him Dennis Katungye’s number, the coach we partnered with over there.”
Katungye told Richter there was a need for basketball work to be done through camps if he knew of any coaches that wanted to be involved. Richter did one better and went after players. Girls from the Colorado Springs School and a couple of other schools in the area jumped at the chance to provide online clinics to women’s players in Uganda. His two daughters Paige and Cameron were among those to join and then other students quickly got involved.
(Photo courtesy of Lisa Voight/Colorado Springs School)
“I was excited to jump at the chance,” CSS junior Mia Chavez said. “We have a chance to have such a big impact on such a small group. I knew it was going to be great to be a part of the process.”
The workload to develop the foundation increased in March and already the players have film and sent a collection of instructional videos to two schools that are participating in the program.
They’re aiming to travel to Uganda next summer to run on-site camps.
“I thought it was a cool idea and a great cause to head to Africa and help young girls,” CSS senior Sasha Malone said. “It’s awesome to have young girls teach younger students.”
The foundation is going well above and beyond teaching skills. It is working to fundraise in order to get participating schools outfitted with new equipment and uniforms as well as building some facilities.
There has already been $11,000 raised which has allowed excavation to begin on a basketball court for the Immaculate Heart Girls School.
When the court is completed, basketball will become an official sport at the school and the efforts here in Colorado will have had a heavy hand in that. As much as the game has helped Chavez, Malone, and other standout players such as recent Kodiak graduate Kate Griffin and her sister Anna (Coronado ’20) as well as St. Mary’s standout Josephine Howery, the Class 3A girls player of the year, they’re all appreciative that they can use the game they love to enrich others’ lives.
“Basketball, like any sport, isn’t just a game where you get to play and have fun,” Chavez said. “You can help someone build character and I think there are so many different ways that you can use basketball to improve different parts of your life.”
These girls have learned that lesson first-hand while competing for their high school teams and they have no interest in slowing down when it comes to helping others in less fortunate situations feel the same benefits.
Coach Dennis Katungye and his teams from Maryhill High School in Uganda. (Photo courtesy of Sasha Malone/Crossover for Change)
After claiming a Class 3A girls state basketball title as just a sophomore, things were never going to get easier for Joesphine Howery and the St. Mary’s Pirates. That was especially true when heading into each year, the expectations of what she and her teammates could achieve only got higher.
But she never let that slow her down. Instead, she embraced it and used it to help her become the very basketball player she was when the final buzzer sounded in her final game for the Pirates.
Howery left her impression on teammates, fans and opponents en route to claiming her second 3A girls basketball Player of the Year award. By the time the 2019-20 season rolled around, Howery was used to the expectations and pressure being placed on her and her team, but as a senior she was well-equipped to handle everything and even play at higher level on the court.
“This year it felt more businesslike,” Howery said. “We had seniors and leaders as team captains that we felt would lead us to another (state championship).”
Howery had the best season of her career as a senior, scoring 21.2 points per game while pulling down 6.8 rebounds and dishing 4.6 assists. She averaged almost two more assists per game this season than she did as a junior.
It didn’t matter if she needed to score or if she needed to get the ball to someone else to score, Howery had every bit of faith that the Pirates had the ability to get the ball to the right spot at the right time and come away with a bucket.
“She’s had that confidence ever since freshman year,” her younger brother Sam said. “That’s just one thing that I would like to replicate to my game.”
In a way, Josephine isn’t being fair to her three younger brothers. Through the course of her career she has won two state championships and two Player of the Year of awards.
Sam earned a 3A boys all-state honorable mention nod this year as a sophomore. But he can’t help but look at what Josephine has done over the course of four years and realize that he has a lot of work to do to keep up with her efforts.
“She’s definitely brought a legacy to St. Mary’s basketball,” Sam said. “If we don’t keep that going it’ll be kind of tough. She’s definitely put a lot of pressure on me and my siblings because we try to live up to her expectations.”
For Josephine, those expectations on herself came fairly early. During their first title run, the Pirates beat defending 3A champion Lamar in the semifinals before taking down rival Colorado Springs Christian School in the championship game.
“That first year is an experience you wouldn’t trade with a team that you wouldn’t trade either,” she said. “Those bonds and memories I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
That second year looked a little the same in terms of the championship game. Once again, Tri-Peaks rival CSCS stood in the way of a St. Mary’s championship and again the Pirates came out on top.
That was another aspect of what has made Howery’s career and the Pirates’ run of state championships all the more impressive. The Tri-Peaks League has been impressive in recent years. In fact, that league has seen at least one of its members playing for the championship since 2016 when Manitou Springs fell to Lutheran. Then next year, Lamar beat CSCS to claim the 3A title.
For her entire career, Howery feels like her team’s league schedule consisted of the best teams in the state.
“Having a strong a conference means everything,” she said. “It prepares you for the tough road ahead and some of the best players are in the Tri-Peaks League.”
That includes her. She’ll continue her basketball career at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. Her impact at St. Mary’s will be felt long after she’s gone, through tall tales of her play on the court as well as through her younger brothers, starting with Sam.
One way her siblings can live up to the expectations she has created is to continue to develop as they get older. Josephine was never satisfied with who she was at any given moment because she felt like there was always room to get better whether it was on the court or as a team captain.
“I think I’ve become a more confident person and player these last four years,” she said. “I wanted end the right way and the best way I could. Being a leader on and off the court was my biggest challenge and something I wanted to do.”
It will be hard for future teams to talk about the Pirates’ state championships without acknowledging Howery’s impact. It’ll be tougher for those following in her shoes to replicate that impact and live up to the expectations she has created for the program.
A proud Pirate, she’ll watch from a distance hoping to see those in green and white reach her level and even soar beyond. And he really won’t mind if happens to be one or all of her brothers climbing that ladder to stand next the standard-bearer of St. Mary’s basketball.
