UCCS Finishes in Third Place in Pueblo Tournament

PUEBLO, Colo. - Despite a 3-under par 69 by Chris Shoop in the final round Tuesday, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs settled for a third-place finish at the Dairy Queen Wolfpack Invitational.

The Mountain Lions went into the final round trailing Fort Lewis by seven strokes and Colorado State-Pueblo by three. UCCS, which shot 2-over par in the final round, gained two strokes on Colorado State-Pueblo but dropped two strokes to Fort Lewis.

The result sets up what should be a hotly contested RMAC Spring Championship on Monday and Tuesday at Wigwam Golf Club in Phoenix. With two first place finishes plus a second place in the first three RMAC tournaments, UCCS is in the lead to win its sixth consecutive conference championship. Fort Lewis, however, has two second-place finishes and a first. That means the Skyhawks need only finish a slot ahead of UCCS to tie for the title and two spots ahead to win it outright.

Fort Lewis and UCCS have now played in two springs tournaments together with each finishing ahead of the other once.

Shoop finished with a three-round score of 214 (2-under par). Scott Weyers of Colorado State-Pueblo was the individual medalist at 211. Jim Knouse of Fort Lewis and David Schroeder of Fort Lewis were tied for second at 213.

Brian Morfeld was second among UCCS golfers with an even-par 216, followed by Riley Andrews at 219, Mitch Buchner (227) and Spencer Biersdorff (234). Michael Tilghman competed as an individual, scoring 217.

The Mountain Lions struggled to put together four good scsores in each round. UCCS had four under-par rounds and three at par in the tournament, the most at or below par of any school, but had to count rounds of 76, 78 and 78.