Aidan Call and Brooke Sturtevant finished in a tie for eleventh and eighth place in their respective fields as the Fort Lewis College men's and women's golf teams each notched a fifth-place finish at the Ruidoso Junior Golf Association's Cactus Thaw! at the Painted Dunes Golf Club in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday and Monday.
Sturtevant had the highest individual finish for the Skyhawks. Playing from the white tees with a total course yardage of 6,148 yards, Sturtevant finished the tournament with a 165 on the score card, 21 strokes above par, after rounds of 84 and 81.
On the men's side, Call led FLC with a 155 (74, 81), finishing 11 strokes above par.
As a unit, the men's squad finished 59 strokes above par with a team total of 635.
The women's team finished with a team total of 677, 47 strokes above par. The women totaled 65 pars and eight birdies, while the men had 85 pars and 17 birdies.
Odessa College's Claudia Alnajim and Ailsa Brannock each finished 10 strokes above par (154) to tie for the women’s individual title. Garden City Community College's Anthony DeSchutter captured the men’s individual title and was the only athlete to finish below par with a 143 (72, 71). Western New Mexico won the men's team title with a 604 (+28) and Odessa College earned the women's title with a 632 (+56).
Fort Lewis will now enjoy a few weeks of rest before returning to competition. The men's team will return to play at the Las Vegas Desert Classic at the Boulder Creek Golf Club on March 6-7. The women's team will return March 13-14 for the Midwestern State Invitational at the Wichita Falls Country Club.
The Fort Lewis College softball team pushed back its Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opening series at Colorado Mesa University to a Sunday/Monday format due to Wednesday's snowstorm.
The Skyhawks (2-5 overall) were originally slated to take on the Mavericks (2-6) this Saturday and Sunday in Grand Junction.
Due to the recent snowstorms around Colorado, however, the series has been pushed back to Sunday and Monday. Sunday's doubleheader will kick off at noon, and Monday's will start at 11 a.m.
The series will serve as the conference opener for both sides as well as the Mavericks’ home opener.
In FLC’s last game, Catheryn Rodman supplied a two-run home run to put the Skyhawks on the board, but FLC was unable to produce any additional offense and was swept by Eastern New Mexico University 9-0 and 3-2 on Sunday.
On Saturday, a pair of crooked innings from the West Texas A&M University Buffaloes was the difference as FLC fell 9-4 in the first appearance for the blue and gold at the West Texas A&M Invitational Tournament.
Fort Lewis College men's basketball player Akuel Kot advanced to the top-50 watch list for the Bevo Francis Award, Small College Basketball announced Wednesday.
The award goes to the player considered to have the finest overall season in small college basketball, including the Division II, Division III, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, United States Collegiate Athletic Association and National Christian College Athletic Association levels. Considerations for the honor include personal achievements, team achievements, personal character and season statistics.
Kot continues to lead both the Skyhawks and the RMAC in scoring, averaging 24.5 points per game. Kot is shooting 50.6% from the field, 39.7% from three and 86.2% from the free-throw line. Kot also ranks second in Division II and fourth across all NCAA divisions in points per game.
Kot has scored no less than 11 points in a single outing this season while tallying six 30-point performances and 16 20-point games. Kot set the program's single-game scoring record of 45 points against the University of Texas Permian Basin earlier this season and currently sits 100 points shy of the single-season scoring record of 687 (Joshua Blaylock, 2016-17 and Alex Herrera 2014-15).
On Friday, FLC will face another player on the top-50 watch list, Joel Scott of Black Hills State University. Scott is the third-leading scorer in the RMAC, averaging 22.5 points per game with 539 total points, while sitting in second in rebounding with 9.0 per game and 216 total rebounds.
The two teams have identical 22-2 overall and 16-2 RMAC records and will square off at 7 p.m. Friday in Spearfish, South Dakota. FLC will also play South Dakota Mines on Saturday.
