It’s the offseason for Fort Lewis College sports without a game for nearly two months, so there’s no better time to look back at the previous school year and assess how the Skyhawks did.
There were plenty of highlights and low moments since the beginning of the school year in August. Whether it was game-winning goals, baskets and runs, dominant performances, heartbreaking defeats or blowout losses, Skyhawks experienced it all.
But the final scores and records of the seasons don’t always show the full stories. There are injuries, coaching changes and plenty of storylines that aren’t visible with just the final results.
So, let’s take a look back at each team and grade their seasons. Since FLC has so many teams, this article will be broken down into three parts for the three seasons. The spring season was covered in Part 1, so let’s turn our attention to the winter sports in Part 2.
Grade: B
The FLC men’s basketball team had a roller coaster season, and the wild ride started even before the first game.
Head coach Jordan Mast entered his second season with lofty goals as he wanted his team to not only return to the NCAA Tournament, but host an NCAA regional inside Whalen Gymnasium.
Mast thought he had a great mix of returning talent and strong players from the transfer portal. But in the preseason, he lost the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s leading scorer in 2024-2025, Jude Tapia, and stellar freshman guard Daniel Steverson to injuries. Then, once the season started, redshirt sophomore guard Nathan Penney only played a few games before breaking his foot. Junior guard Yorgio Golesis tore his ACL in December after starting at point guard to that point.
The Skyhawks didn’t have the best start to the season with a very hard non-conference schedule, starting 2-4. But FLC had a magical start to the RMAC schedule, going 12-0 and leading the conference by three games. Then FLC lost four consecutive games on the road, limped into the RMAC tournament and lost in the semifinals, missing the NCAA Tournament.
So with all that happened, it isn’t an easy season to grade since there’s so much to take into account. FLC finished 18-11 overall and 15-5 in the RMAC, which is a solid record, but not up to the standard of past FLC teams and the goals Mast had. However, no one can predict that many injuries, and it’s impressive FLC got off to such a good start in conference play and made it to the conference semifinals.
On the other hand, finishing conference play 3-5 after starting 12-0 is disappointing, especially since there were some tough road losses to mediocre teams at the end of the season. It’s also disappointing to go only 4-7 on the road for a team with NCAA Tournament expectations.
After all that, a B grade seemed appropriate. Getting to the RMAC semifinals is a good year, and all of Mast’s expectations were with a healthy roster, so it was impressive that the Skyhawks did as well as they did.
But what makes this season a B and not an A was the finish. FLC didn’t have any of their injuries happen late in the season, and it should’ve done better than a 3-5 finish to conference play after starting 12-0. Going even 5-3 down the stretch would’ve likely allowed FLC to host the RMAC tournament, which could’ve allowed the Skyhawks to take advantage of their strong home-court play to get to the NCAA Tournament.
Grade: A-
It’s pretty impressive when a team comes out of nowhere for a strong season, and that’s exactly what happened with FLC women’s basketball.
Unlike the men’s program, the Skyhawks women’s program hadn’t done anything of note this decade before the 2025-2026 season. That included head coach Lauren Zuniga’s first season in 2024-2025, when FLC finished 6-22 overall, last in the RMAC at 3-17 and finished the season with eight consecutive losses.
Zuniga didn’t even know what to expect in the preseason. But her team came out playing well against an easier non-conference schedule. FLC played really hard, showed growth from the previous season and only lost to teams that finished above them in the RMAC standings. For the first time in eight years, FLC made the RMAC tournament.
An 18-11 overall record and 11-9 conference record is stellar when considering it was a 12-win improvement from the previous season. An A- is a great grade, and it’s hard to grade higher than that without a conference championships, NCAA Tournament appearance, or more.
Grade: A
The FLC track and field program is in its infancy, so what the Skyhawks accomplished in the winter was stellar, sending six athletes to the national championships.
Now there are a lot of events and a lot of athletes at the national championships, but there are also a lot of schools trying to get into the event. For FLC, with a program that’s only a few years old, to send six athletes is great. Especially when considering that FLC doesn’t have an indoor track to use in the winter. Heck, it doesn’t even have its own outdoor track. So that puts the Skyhawks program behind the majority of programs.
That’s why indoor track deserves an A. The Skyhawks had multiple All-Americans, and the only thing that could’ve given the program an A+ was a national champion, and FLC almost had that with Brady Burrough finishing second in the men’s mile.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
