Working Wonders

Estes Park HS, DU grad Dawn Shockley beats the odds in coaching Oregon State women golfers to NCAA national tourney berth for third time in 4 years

By Gary Baines 

Dawn Shockley is no stranger to success at women’s NCAA Division I regional tournaments. Most notably as a player, that includes the Estes Park High School graduate personally winning the NCAA East Regional individual title in 2009 while competing for a formidable University of Denver squad.

And that success has certainly carried over to her career as a college golf head coach. Prior to when she took over the reins of the Oregon State women’s program in 2016, the Beavers had qualified a full team for the NCAA national championships just once — in 1998.

But on Wednesday, despite being seeded ninth in a 12-team NCAA regional field in Stanford, Calif., Shockley’s Oregon State team advanced a full squad to nationals for the third time in four years.

OSU, ranked 50th nationally in women’s DI golf coming in, beat six teams ranked higher at the regional and ended up in third place. The top five team finishers at each regional advance to nationals, set for May 22-27 at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.

In their previous two national championships under Shockley, the Beavers finished 22nd as a team in both 2023 and ’24.

In Stanford, Oregon State ended up at 2 over par for three rounds, with host — and top-ranked — Stanford winning at 42 under par, and No. 11 Pepperdine (-4) finishing runner-up.

Also at the Stanford Regional, Eva Pett, who grew up in Denver and helped lead Colorado Academy to the 3A state high school team title in 2019, wrapped up her senior season at the University of San Francisco by finishing 15th individually. She went 68-71-71, ending up at 1 over par. Pett won the individual title at the Causeway Invite and has collected four other top-10s this season. SCORES

— Elsewhere at women’s college regionals: The University of Colorado women, competing as a full team at NCAA regionals for the first time since 2018, finished ninth out of 12 schools in Waco, Texas, ending CU’s season. The Buffs were 34 over par as a team for three rounds. Maya McVey led CU individually, placing 28th. SCORES … Also falling short of advancing a team to nationals was the University of Kansas, coached by Colorado native and former DU coach Lindsay Kuhle. The Jayhawks ended up seventh in a regional in Ann Arbor, Mich. 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