PUEBLO, Colo. (Feb. 24, 2016) — It's been four long months since the Colorado State University-Pueblo men's and women's golf teams stepped out onto the links for tournament play. Fortunately, that drought comes to end Sunday in the desert of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Pack, who finished the fall season in fine fashion with third (men) and fifth-place (women) finishes at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference #2 tournament in Albuquerque, N.M., resume their 2015-16 schedule Sunday and Monday as each team tees off in the Las Vegas Desert Classic, held at Paiute Golf Course.
"It's always fun when you can take both programs together. We're like one big family and we don't often get to travel together," said CSU-Pueblo Director of Golf, Josh Koschke. "It (Las Vegas Desert Classic) is a great tournament at a great golf course. It's a field that has competition we don't see all the time. There's a lot of Florida and a lot of northwest schools, so it's a safe tournament for us. We obviously want to finish well in it, but if we do come out a little rusty coming out of the winter, it's not going to hurt us regionally to have a poor finish."
For the men, Pueblo native Jacob Allenback, a Second-Team All-RMAC selection a season ago as a sophomore, leads the ThunderWolves into the spring season following a fantastic fall that saw him notch three top 10 finishes, highlighted by a third-place finish in the Farmers Insurance Samuel Proal Invitational played at Walkingstick Golf Course in Pueblo, Sept. 7-8. Allenback is ranked ninth in the West Region and sports a team best 71.36 stroke average.
Neil Tillman (Arvada, Colo.), the reigning RMAC Freshman of the Year, has been just as impressive as he has earned a pair of back-to-back second-place finishes to start the 2015-16 season in the Farmers Insurance Samuel Proal Invitational and RMAC North Invitational. Tillman currently owns a 73.36 stroke average and the best individual round score (66, 6-under) for any CSU-Pueblo golfer this season.
Fellow sophomore Hayden Ritter (Boise, Idaho) is the third Pack men's golfer to play in all four fall tournaments, posting a round average of 73.27 while tallying a pair of top 10 finishes, as well. Ritter placed eighth at the Farmers Insurance Samuel Proal Invitational and ninth in the RMAC North Invitational. Senior Thayne Balling (Sr., Cody, Wyo.) and five newcomers: Roy Carlsen (Fr., Arvada, Colo.), Daniel Eagle (Jr., Clearlake, Calif.), GJ Kuhn (Jr., Ayr, Ontario, Canada), Taylor Rodriguez (Fr., Pueblo, Colo.) and Austin Shanks (Fr., Wichita, Kan.) all saw action in at least one tournament for the Pack during the fall.
"We have three players who proved themselves in the fall, with Jacob being our leader," said Koschke, referring to Allenback, Tillman and Ritter. "Then we have five guys competing for the No. 4 and No. 5 spots. If they step up and do their job, we're going to be in good shape. We're right around that 10th spot right now and they take the top 10 teams to the Super Regional."
On the women's side, junior Jacquelyn Porman (Gilbert, Ariz.) and freshman Courtney Ewing (Pueblo West, Colo.) have paced a young ThunderWolves team as the two are tied for the best round average on the team at 79 strokes.
Porman earned two top 20 finishes during the fall, her best being a tie for 10th place in the RMAC #1 North Invitational Sept. 14-15.
Ewing owns the Pack's best individual finish thus far, as she took seventh overall, fourth amongst Region players, in the Farmers Insurance Samuel Proal Invitational at the Pueblo Country Club.
Jolene Kam (Fr., Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia), junior Natasha Navarro (San Antonio, Texas) and freshman Tori Goodman (Peyton, Colo.) round out the roster for the Pack women with average round scores of 80.2, 83.1 and 85.4, respectively.
"Our goal for the women is to compete for the RMAC Championship," Koschke said. "We're not thinking about postseason play right now. If we can handle our business at the RMAC, then we can see what happens. With us not having any seniors, it's been a two-year plan with this group. They're all going to be together for two years, so we're just trying to build, continually get better every day, and peak toward the end of this spring and beginning of fall next year."
That said, Koschke believes the men's and women's teams can threaten for top five finishes down in Las Vegas.
"I feel like a top five out of both teams would be a very successful event," Koschke said. "Anything else, we'd come back and get back to the drawing board. But I think both teams are very capable of a strong finish in this event."
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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Colorado State University – Pueblo competes in 22 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.
