Five men and five women will represent Fort Lewis College in this year’s Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships.
The men are at Goodyear, Arizona’s Golf Club of Estrella as the seventh seed, and will play in a 54-hole medal match play single elimination tournament Sunday and Monday to determine the conference champion. The women will play nearby at Coldwater Golf Club on Sunday and Monday with an 18-hole final match scheduled for Tuesday, if the Skyhawks advance.
The women’s champion will be determined after a two-day, 36-hole stroke play tournament that will narrow the field to four teams. The four teams will play 18 holes of match play Tuesday with the top-two teams playing for the title, and the third and fourth teams will play for third place.
The men will start with a Monday morning match against No. 2 seed Colorado Christian. The winner will face the winner of No. 3 CSU-Pueblo and No. 6 Colorado Mines. On the other end of the bracket, top-seed University of Colorado-Colorado Springs will open with No. 8 Regis. The winner will face either defending champion and No. 4 seed Western New Mexico or No. 5 Colorado Mesa.
Matt Huntley’s 76.12 scoring average is the lowest on the Fort Lewis men’s team. Dillon Washburn is close behind with a 77.40 average, and he already made news before the first tee shots are struck. Washburn was recognized as the RMAC’s Summit Award winner for the third consecutive year. The award is given to the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average at the men’s and women’s championships, and Washburn is the first golfer to win it three years in a row.
Michael Thomas (78.20), Trevor Bogus (78.67) and Mitchell Donley (79.00) will join Huntley and Washburn in trying to improve on the Skyhawks’ eighth-place finish last year.
The FLC women are led by the duo of Jessica Thulson and Isabella Martinez, who have played solid golf in recent weeks. Thulson’s 82.86 average leads the team, and Martinez, who averages 82.93, is coming off a 10th-place finish at last week’s Colorado Mesa Maverick Spring Invitational. Martinez fired a final round 75 at the tough Golf Club at Redlands Mesa to lead the Skyhawks to a sixth-place overall finish. Thulson finished 11th after carding 81 and 77.
If the Skyhawks hope to make it to the top four portion of the event, Lindsey Blythe, Lauren Trujillo and Milena Singletary will have to improve on their averages, all of which are well into the 90s.
The men are scheduled to tee off at 7:30 a.m. Monday, and the winners will play a second match in the afternoon before the Tuesday finale. The women will tee off in an 11:30 a.m. shotgun start both Sunday and Monday. The top four teams will advance to play at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
jfries@durangoherald.com
