Home Cooking

CSU Pueblo women punch tickets to NCAA DII nationals for first time as a team after placing third at Pueblo CC in regionals; DU’s Jet Hernandez falls in a playoff in Summit League tourney

By Gary Baines 

Fittingly, the CSU Pueblo women’s golf team felt right at home when it earned a full team berth to the NCAA Division II national championships for the first time in program history.

Hosting the women’s NCAA DII West Regional — the first time since 2018 a women’s DII regional tournament has been held in Colorado — the ThunderWolves punched their tickets to nationals with a third-place finish out of 18 teams at Pueblo Country Club, where they were hosting the meet.

With the top five team finishers earning spots to nationals, CSU Pueblo is headed to the season-ending championships, which are set for May 12-16 at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

The Wolves — winners of six team titles this season, including their fourth straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory — ended up at 64 over par in challenging conditions for the 54-hole regional, which was changed to a Tuesday finish given the stormy weather forecast for Wednesday.

CSU Pueblo, ranked No. 29 in the nation among DII women’s teams, finished behind only champion Cal State San Marcos, which won by seven, and runner-up Dallas Baptist — which has claimed three of the last five women’s DII national titles.

Freya Constable, a senior from Scotland on an all-European CSU Pueblo roster, led the ThunderWolves individually with a sixth-place showing out of the 95-player field. She went 81-75-71 and finished 11 strokes behind champion Ella Cheek of Dallas Baptist. It’s Constable’s fourth top-10 individual finish in her last five college tournaments.

Lisa Ekberg, a CSU Pueblo junior from Sweden, tied for ninth place (70-78-81). Ekberg made an albatross on the 537-yard par-5 14th hole in round 1.

Since December, the CSU Pueblo women golfers have been guided by interim head coach John Wristen, who led the school’s football team to a national DII title in 2014.

Colorado’s other team in the West Regional in Pueblo, Colorado Christian, finished in 15th place.

SCORES

— Summit League Men: University of Denver junior Jet Hernandez tied for first place in regulation individually — but lost in a playoff — on Tuesday at the men’s Summit League tournament in Mesa, Ariz.

Hernandez carded scores of 68-72-69 for a 4-under-par total, but played his final four holes of regulation in 3 over, making bogeys on 15, 16 and 18 to fall into a share for first place. Then Oral Roberts’ Gustav Liljeberg won the four-man playoff to claim the individual trophy.

In the team race, North Dakota State prevailed by six strokes over DU, thus earning an automatic berth to the men’s NCAA Division I regionals. NDSU finished at 5 under par for three rounds and DU at 1 over.

Senior Willis Panzarello (seventh place) joined Hernandez in the top 10 for DU.

SCORES

— Mountain West Conference Men: In another conference tournament that concluded on Tuesday, the Colorado State men finished eighth and Air Force 12th in the 12-team Mountain West meet in Tucson, Ariz.

The Rams ended up at 22 under par for three rounds, while Air Force checked in at 18 over. Charlie Doyle of Colorado Springs (72-71-68) tied for 24th individually for CSU.

Thayer Plewe, a freshman for New Mexico from Cortez, Colo., shared eighth place (68-72-67) and participated in a team playoff as New Mexico and UNLV tied in regulation in the standings. UNLV prevailed in the playoff to earn the team title.

Two other Coloradans, Boise State’s Reese Knox (72-69-68) and Wyoming’s Kellen Ball (70-69-70), also had a top-15 showings, tying for 15th.

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. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com