CHADRON, Neb. – Chadron State women's golf will continue their season by competing in their third spring tournament, the Southern Colorado Open, on Sunday and Monday in Pueblo, Colorado.
The tournament will be hosted by CSU Pueblo at the Walking Stick Golf Course. The teams are expected to tee off with a shotgun start at 9 a.m. on both days.
Chadron State will be competing against four nationally ranked teams in the upcoming tournament, including two junior colleges (Garden City CC and New Mexico JC) who are ranked in the top 15 at that level. There are two nationally ranked Division II teams in the field - the RMAC's CSU Pueblo, ranked 34th, and Texas A&M-International, ranked 49th.
Colorado Mesa, the winner of the SMSU Challenge, will be competing along with four other RMAC schools- Adams State, MSU Denver, South Dakota Mines and Colorado Christian.
Looking Back
The Eagles traveled to Arizona last week to compete in their first two tournaments of the spring season.
At the SMSU Spring Invite, Chadron State had four golfers who placed in the top 25 of the tournament. Klara Kleinig placed 10th, followed by Macy Kleve in 13th place, Allison Sanger in 18th place and Lauren Knapp in 24th place.
The Eagles finished the Spring Invite with a 36-hole score of 628 and placed in fourth out of 13 competing schools, notably finishing ahead of RMAC competitors MSU Denver and Colorado Mesa.
Following was the SMSU Challenge, in which CSC ended in seventh place as a team. Aubree Heinsma, who competed as an individual, finished one stroke out of the top ten in 11th place. Heinsma shot an 82 on the last day after a round-one 77 and was the Eagles' top scorer.
Kleve came back again and was CSC's leader amongst the scoring golfers, scoring a round of 10-over-par 80. Kleve placed 17th out of 62 golfers. Following Kleve were Kleinig and Knapp who tied for 26th place, both scoring 26-over.
In the Polls
Chadron State was picked to finish seventh in the RMAC based on a fall preseason vote of the league's head coaches.
CSU Pueblo topped the preseason poll with eight of 10 first-place votes. Colorado Christian and Westminster had one first-place vote each, with CCU snagging five second-place votes to finish second over the Griffins.
Colorado Mesa placed fourth in the poll, followed by MSU Denver and Fort Lewis ahead of CSC. Behind the Eagles, South Dakota Mines, Black Hills State and Adams State rounded out the projected finishing order.
