Women’s golf opens second tournament of season
The UCCS Mountain Lions women’s golf squad played their second tournament of the fall, recording a 965 score over a three-round, two-day period from Oct. 3-4. This puts the Mountain Lions in the back of the pack, placing last of the 16 competing teams at the West Regional Preview in Dallas, Texas.
Junior Emily Shimkus shot the best of any UCCS player with 226, placing above sophomore teammates Olivia Florence and Rachel Penzenstadler and freshman teammate Kaya Kshatriya who all placed within eight strokes of one another. Shimkus’ final round of 72 was the lowest single-round score by a Mountain Lion this season.
Rounding out the UCCS five is junior Samantha Saile, recording a 259 over the course of the tournament.
The Mountain Lions will look to bounce back at the FLC Nick Turner Invitational from Oct. 17-18 in Albuquerque, in their final tournament before the RMAC championships.
Haake leads men’s golf to fifth-place finish
Junior Brady Haake recorded a team-high 208 over the three-round event, and the Mountain Lions placed fifth of 17 teams at the Oct. 3-4 Ryan Palmer Foundation Invite in Amarillo, Texas.
Haake drained seven straight pars on the second day to put himself in front while redshirt senior Barrett Jones followed closely behind with a score of 210. Jones’ 15 birdies in the tournament were tied for the second-most among the competitors.
Redshirt junior Lucas Howell, redshirt senior Travis Bassio and junior James Perry all finished within eight strokes of one another with scores of 213, 216 and 221.
Haake finished ninth overall in the individual field, while Jones’ three-over par in the final round propelled him into a tie for 14th.
Men’s golf will head to Seaside, California, for their third tournament of the year competing in the Otter Invitational from Oct. 17-18.
15th ranked Mountain Lions men’s cross country takes first place in invitational
At the University of Wisconsin Parkside Lucian Rosa Invite on Oct. 8, senior Afewerki Zeru finished first of all 135 runners, headlining a second-straight first-place finish for the Mountain Lions.
Zeru’s 8K time of 24:39.78 was the fastest of any competing runners, and the Mountain Lions blew out the remaining teams, placing 32 points ahead of second-place Wisconsin-Parkside.
Five Mountain Lions ranked in the top 20, with three of them placing within the top seven. Graduate student and captain Evan Graff finished in fifth place with a time of 25:15.5 and graduate student Marcus Graham took seventh place by less than a second at 25:23.2.
As for personal bests, graduate student Tim Chambers and redshirt freshman Jagger Zlotoff completed the race in their fastest times, with Zlotoff just missing out on a top 20 finish.
UCCS will finish off the cross-country season with their only home meet of the season at the UCCS XC Open 8K in Colorado Springs on Oct. 21.
Photo courtesy of gomountainlions.com.