Backed by its Basalt High School alumnus, Colorado School of Mines was crowned the men’s golf spring champion of its conference Tuesday at Wigwam Golf Resort in Litchfield Park, Ariz.

Orediggers senior Jim Knous shot a 74-71-75–220 for a 4-under par title after two days of golf on the Gold Course during the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships.

Knous finished one stroke better than teammate Cory Bacon and Western New Mexico’s David Metz.

Charlie Laudermilk, the elder statesmen on the Fort Lewis College men’s golf team, finished in a three-way tie for fourth place. The junior shot 78-75-71–224 for an 8-over par on the par-72, 7,228-yard golf course.

FLC finished ninth out of 10 teams at the tournament.

Colorado Mesa and Western N.M. tied for runner-up, 15 strokes back of Colorado Mines.

UC-Colorado Springs and CSU-Pueblo tied for fourth.

Nebraska-Kearney finished sixth, Colorado Christian finished seventh, Regis eighth and FLC and Adams State ninth and 10th, respectively.

Laudermilk’s 71 on Tuesday tied three others for the best 18 on the final day. His 10 birdies at the RMAC Championships tied four others atop the leaderboard, too.

Bacon shot a tournament-best 69 in his first round Day 1.

For FLC:

Zach Bryant and Lucas Laudick tied for 37th at 28-over par.

John Thomsen tied for 41st at 30-over par.

Clark Reidberger tied for 43rd at 31-over par.

Laudermilk and FLC will compete at the NCAA Division II West/Central SuperRegional on May 7-9 on the gold course at Litchfield, Ariz.

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