Coloradans Jessica Mason (NCAA Div. III) and Lily Nelson (DII) record top-15 individual finishes in national championships
By Gary Baines – 5/16/2025
For the second straight year, a couple of Class of 2022 Colorado high school graduates posted top-15 individual finishes at national college golf championships.
Lily Nelson of New Castle, a graduate of Prairie View High School, placed 13th on Thursday at the women’s NCAA Division II nationals in Boulder City, Nevada. That comes a year after the golfer for Henderson State (Ark.) placed seventh at the national championship.
Then on Friday, Jessica Mason of Westminster, a Holy Family High School graduate, ended up 12th in the women’s NCAA DIII nationals at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va. Mason, from Trinity in Texas, tied for eighth nationally last year, and was 25th in the same event in 2023 while she played for Pomona Pitzer before transferring to Trinity.
Nelson rebounded from an opening-round 75 with scores of 67 and 71 to check in at 3 under par overall. In the last two rounds, she chalked up 11 birdies and five bogeys. Nelson recorded six top-5 individual finishes this season.
Mason, winner of three individual college titles this season, also had to rally after a tough first round — in her case a 78. She followed that up with 70-76-72 for an 8-over-par total for four days. Earlier, Mason was named a second team DIII All-American by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association.
Mason is a past winner of the Women’s Western Junior, a 4A girls state high school title and Colorado Junior PGA Championship.
For all the scores from the DIII nationals, CLICK HERE.
For results from the DII nationals, CLICK HERE.
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