The fall portion of the college golf season wrapped up last week for the Division I programs based in Colorado.

There were plenty of highlights for teams and players with major connections to the Centennial State and, probably not coincidentally, many of those superlatives took place in tournaments held in Colorado.

As we enter intermission for a 2018-19 season that won’t resume in earnest until February in most cases — or late January at least — we’ll revisit some of the top local moments from the fall Division I schedule:

— The University of Colorado men’s squad claimed two team titles in September — at the season-opening Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational at the Air Force Academy, and at their own Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational in Erie.

— Not to be outdone, the Colorado State University men also won twice team-wise in the fall. The Rams claimed their fifth straight title as they hosted the Ram Masters Invitational in Fort Collins, then prevailed in winter-like conditions at the Paintbrush Invitational in Parker.

— On the women’s side, CSU accomplished a momentous feat by earning a team victory at a major invitational for the first time in over eight years. It came at the University of Denver’s Ron Moore Women’s Intercollegiate in Highlands Ranch, the Rams’ third tournament under new head coach Laura Cilek.

— At that same event, CSU junior Ellen Secor claimed the first individual victory of her college career. Secor subsequently was named the Mountain West Conference’s Women’s Golfer of the Month for October. And notably, one of the two players who tied for second in Highlands Ranch, a stroke behind Secor, was CSU’s Katrina Prendergast, Secor’s teammate when the two won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball national championship in May. (The two are pictured, with Secor at left.)

— Kyler Dunkle, who grew up in Colorado and won the CGA Amateur in August, had a stellar fall individually as a senior at Utah. Dunkle won the individual title at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational for the second straight year. And this time, it was his second college win in eight days. Dunkle finished the fall with three top-four finishes.

— Also at CU’s Simpson Invitational, Buffs sophomore Trevor Olkowski technically tied for the individual title — and it will go down as a victory — though Dunkle beat him in a playoff by making a 6-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole. (Below, Olkowski is pictured with Dunkle, in the red shirt.)

— Junior Daniel O’Loughlin, a CU teammate of Olkowski, recorded an outright individual victory at the season opener at the Air Force Academy. O’Loughlin notched four top-10 finishes in five fall tournaments.

— One of the more remarkable performances of the fall was by CSU freshman Oscar Teiffel, from Sweden. In a final round of the Paintbrush Invitational in which temperatures hovered in the mid-30s and it was snowing more than a little, Teiffel carded a stellar 5-under-par 67 at Colorado Golf Club. The three-stroke victory was the first for Teiffel in his young college career.

Add up all of the above, and local schools recorded five team victories in the fall, and local players posted six individual wins — or, in Olkowski’s case, a tie for first.

— Junior Robyn Choi, the top player for the CU women, didn’t manage an individual victory in the fall, but certainly made a few runs at it. In all, she had three top-six finishes in three fall tournaments. And, perhaps most impressively, she earned her LPGA card for 2019 by finishing 45th in the final stage of Q-school, the Q-Series.

— Coby Welch, a junior at the University of Northern Colorado who went to the U.S. Amateur in August, had a strong fall, notching three top-five individual finishes — all coming in Colorado. He was third at both the Gene Miranda and Ram Masters, and fifth at the Paintbrush Invite.

— Freshmen had the top two stroke averages for CSU in the fall: Teiffel (70.77) and Aurora resident Davis Bryant (72.13).

— Mary Weinstein of Highlands Ranch, a junior at the University of Denver, shot a program-record 8-under-par 64 to close out the Golfweek Conference Challenge at the Fazio Course at Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott. The stellar final round gave Weinstein her best individual finish — third place — since transferring from Regis to DU in the summer of 2017.

— Luke Trujillo, a freshman from Colorado Springs, leads the Air Force Academy golf team in stroke average after the fall season with a 74.4 norm.

— Beah Cruz, a sophomore from Vacaville, Calif., recorded two top-10 individual finishes for the University of Northern Colorado women in the fall — a sixth and a ninth.

— Meanwhile, in a matter not directly related to performance, this season a DU women’s player is carrying a golf bag at each tournament that honors Danny Dietz, a Navy Seal and former Littleton resident who was killed in combat in 2005 during the war in Afghanistan. Coach Lindsay Kuhle went to Heritage High School with Dietz, knows his family, and came up with the idea to pay tribute to Dietz through the Folds of Honor Foundation program. Dietz’s story was part of the book and movie “Lone Survivor”.

Below are the rankings for the Colorado-based NCAA Division I teams as of the end of the fall season (updated Nov. 14):

Men
Colorado State ( 47th Golfstat, 51st Golfweek)
Colorado (73rd Golfstat, 81st Golfweek)
Northern Colorado (118th Golfstat, 122nd Golfweek)
Denver (137th Golfstat, 149th Golfweek)
Air Force Academy (203rd Golfstat, 204th Golfweek)

Women
Colorado (36th Golfweek, 42nd Golfstat)
Colorado State (69th Golfstat, 74th Golfweek)
Denver (79th Golfweek, 81st Golfstat)
Northern Colorado (149th Golfstat, 150th Golfweek)

And here are the rankings of local players in the top 250 in the nation:

Men
91. Longtime Coloradan Kyler Dunkle, Utah (Golfweek)
110. Daniel O’Loughlin, CU (Golfstat)
118. Oscar Teiffel, CSU (Golfweek)
120. Coby Welch, UNC (Golfstat)
189. Davis Bryant, CSU (Golfweek)
238. Trevor Olkowski, CU (Golfstat)

Women
11. Robyn Choi, CU (Golfstat)
57. Coloradan Jennifer Kupcho, Wake Forest (Golfweek)
72. Kirsty Hodgkins, CU (Golfweek)
87. Mary Weinstein, DU (Golfweek)
97. Former Coloradan Elizabeth Wang, Harvard (Golfweek)
192. Katrina Prendergast, CSU (Golfstat)
 

After placing sixth in CU’s season opener last month, the junior from Australia finished third out of 78 players on Tuesday in the Windy City Collegiate Championship in Wilmette, Ill.

Choi (left) shot rounds of 72-69-72 for a 3-under-par 213 total, which left her seven strokes behind Windy City champion Gabriela Ruffels of Southern California.

It was the seventh top-five individual finish of Choi’s CU career.

The Buffs as a team placed ninth out of 14 teams in Illinois.

Also recording top-six finishes on Tuesday in local NCAA Division I golf were University of Northern Colorado teammates Nicole Polivchak and Beah Cruz.

Polivchak placed fifth and Cruz sixth in the Rose City Collegiate in Aurora, Ore. Polivchak checked in at 6-over-par 222 and Cruz at 223 as Courtney Vogel of Grand Canyon won with a 5-under 211 total.

As a team, UNC finished third in the 11-school field, four strokes behind winner Portland State.

Windy City Collegiate Championship
Oct. 1-2, 2018 (final) in Wilmette, Ill.
9. (out of 14 teams) Colorado 301-302-293–896
3. Robyn Choi 72-69-72–213
24. Gillian Vance 72-78-72–222
34. Kirsty Hodgkins 78-75-71–224
67. Haley Nist 81-80-78–230
70. Malak Bouraeda 79-80-83–242
Competing Only as Individual
54. Elle Otten 76-76-79–231

For complete results, CLICK HERE.

Rose City Collegiate
Oct. 1-2, 2018 (final) in Aurora, Ore.

3. (out of 11 teams) Northern Colorado 297-300-301–898
5. Nicole Polivchak 73-72-77–222
6. Beah Cruz 75-76-72–223
17. Jenna Chun 77-77-74–228
21. Morgan Sahm 72-78-79–229
25. Marisa Hisaki 77-75-78–230

Also
44. Coloradan Delaney Elliott, Montana State 80-77-82–239

For complete results, CLICK HERE.
 

A day after the CSU men won the Ram Masters Invitational at Fort Collins Country Club (READ MORE), the CSU women wrapped up on Wednesday at the Ptarmigan Ram Classic at Ptarmigan Country Club.

In their first tournament under new head coach Laura Cilek, the Rams placed sixth out of 13 teams at Ptarmigan.

The Rams moved up one spot in the standings in Wednesday’s final round by shooting a 7-over-par 295 in round 3, giving them a 33-over 897 total. Boise State won the tournament at 879.

Haley Greb and Jessica Sloot, who recently teamed up to qualify in Colorado for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, led the way for the Rams by finishing 13th and 19th individually, respectively. (The two are pictured, with Greb at right.) Greb shot an even-par 72 on Wednesday to check in at 4-over 220, 10 strokes behind individual champion Tara Finigan of Boise State, which also captured the team title. Sloot ended up at 222 after closing with a 73.

The University of Northern Colorado, meanwhile, placed 12th at 914. Beah Cruz paced UNC by finishing 24th individually at 224.
 

Ptarmigan Ram Classic
Sept. 17-19, 2018 (final) at Ptarmigan CC in Fort Collins
6. (out of 13 teams) Colorado State 305-297-295–897
13. Haley Greb 74-74-72–220
19. Jessica Sloot 75-74-73–222
27. Katrina Prendergast 78-71-76–225
51. Ellen Secor 78-79-74–231
62. Sydney Smith 81-78-77–236
Competing Only as Individual
28. Saga Traustadottir 80-76-70–226

12. Northern Colorado 309-304-301–914
24. Beah Cruz 72-76-76–224
33. Marisa Hisaki 80-73-74–227
39. Morgan Sahm 76-76-77–229
55. Nicole Polivchak 81-79-74–234
68. Aili Bundy 81-79-79–239
Competing Only as Individual
66. Jenna Chun 80-79-79–238

Others
44. Coloradan Erin Sargent, Wyoming 76-74-80–230
55. Coloradan Sarah Hankins, Wyoming 80-78-76–234

For complete results, CLICK HERE.