GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The nation's 18
th-ranked Colorado Mesa University men's golf team will look to return to winning ways and wrap up the fall season with another strong performance as the head to Amarillo, Texas for the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invite.
The 54-hole tournament will feature two rounds on Tuesday and another on Wednesday at the Amarillo Country Club.
West Texas A&M is hosting the 15-team tournament, which includes 12 NCAA Division II South Central Regional squads.
Action will begin with an 8:50 a.m. CDT (7:50 a.m. Mountain) shotgun start.
Live scoring can be found on the
SCOREBOARD Powered by clippd website at this link.
Last Time Out (Team)
The Mavericks' main squad last competed at the Sept. 28-30 Shootout at PGA Riviera Maya in Akumal, Mexico, finishing seventh out of 15 teams with a final team score of 919 (+55).
The Tulum Country Club at PGA Riviera Maya course proved difficult as it conceded just four total under-par rounds throughout the three days to the 75-man field.
Three Mavs finished amongst the top 20 players in the 75-man field as sophomore
Leo Lavalle, playing in his home country, and freshman
Henry Starr both tied for 11
th at 226 (+10).
Dylan Everett also finished in an 18
th place tie at 229 (+13).
Colorado Christian's Peyton Jones won the tournament with a 1-over total of 217 while West Texas A&M took the team crown by ten shots with a score of 893 (+29).
Full recaps of all three days of the tournament can be found below.
Last Time Out (Individuals)
Days after the Mavs' main 5-man lineup played in Mexico, the six other Mavericks played as individuals at last week's Bob Writz Invitational, hosted by the Colorado School of Mines, in Lakewood, Colorado.
No team scores were kept in the 36-hole event at Bear Creek Golf Course.
Sophomore Szak Moreau led the Maverick contingent, tying for sixth place in the 35-man field with a final score of 147 (+3).
Baptiste Laborde and
Noah Richmond also finished in the top 10, tying for ninth at 151 (+7).
Moreau had the best and first under par round of his career, recording a 71 (-1) in the opening round.
Full recaps of both days can be seen here
In the Rankings
The Mavericks moved up one spot to 18
th in the latest Bushnell/Golfweek Division II Coaches Poll, released by the Golf Coaches Association of America on Friday (Oct. 10).
The Mavs had been ranked 19
th in the previous edition (Sept. 19) after receiving votes in the preseason edition.
They have 156 points in this week's poll and are the only Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team in the top 25 although three others in Colorado Christian, CSU Pueblo and the Colorado School of Mines are amongst the 33 teams outside of the top 25 that is receiving votes. Colorado Christian had 85 points and is just one spot outside of the top 25 while CSU Pueblo received 84 points.
The Mavs are the third of five NCAA Division II South Central Region teams in the top 25 behind No. 13 St. Mary's and No. 16 Oklahoma Christian and ahead of No. 23 West Texas A&M and No. 25 Midwestern State.
A look at the field
The Mavs are one of four ranked teams expected to play in this week's tournament, a group that also includes No. 16 Oklahoma Christian, No. 23 West Texas A&M and No. 25 Midwestern State. UT Permian Basin and UT Tyler are also receiving votes.
The tournament field includes a dozen South Central Region squads with CMU and Westminster representing the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Ten Lone Star Conference teams will also compete.
The field also includes a Midwest Region squad in William Jewell out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference as well as two National Junior College Association powers in Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College and Odessa (Texas) College. Odessa took second at last year's NJCAA National Championship while Hutchinson finished fourth.
The Maverick Lineup
Maverick Coach
Scott Sullivan will use the same lineup as he has throughout the fall with
Timmy Cavarno,
Leo Lavalle,
Dylan Everett,
Luke Wagstaff and
Henry Starr teeing it up for the Mavs. The group has combined for 18 par or better rounds this season as the Mavs posted a 288.75 scoring average as a team in their first three tournaments. They have also combined for six top-10 finishes.
Everett, who won the season-opening Travis Roy Memorial Invitational, leads the Mavs with a 71.88 scoring average through three tournaments and eight rounds, just one total shot ahead of Lavalle, who has a 72.00 scoring average. Canvarno (73.14), Starr (73.63) and Wagstaff (73.88) are also playing well this fall.
Shining Starr
Maverick freshman
Henry Starr was one of just four of the 75 players in the Shootout at PGA Riviera Maya to break par in any of the three rounds. The Englewood, Colorado native posted a final round score of 71 (-1) to move up to 20 spots to a tie for 11
th in the final standings.
Starr, who has been in the Maverick starting lineup in all three of their team tournaments this fall, has posted three below par rounds, including a 68 in the second round of the San Juan Intercollegiate.
Ryan Palmer Success
The Mavericks shined in last year Ryan Palmer Foundation Invite, setting multiple single-round and tournament program records while taking second out 17 teams.
CMU posted a program-record 268 in the third and final round of last year's event, six shots better than the former record at the time. In the process, they finished with a 54-hole total of 821, ten shots better than the former record of 831.
Now Maverick assistant coach
Cole Beyer won the individual title with a program-record 54-hole score of 197 and posted a 63, the second best round in program history, in the final round.
Three of the four other Mavericks competing again this year were also a part of that record-setting effort as
Leo Lavalle tied for ninth while
Luke Wagstaff tied for 13
th.
Timmy Cavarno tied for 34
th.
Click here to see the recap of last year's final round.
Looking for history
The Mavericks have won both of their first two tournaments of the season, marking the first time in program history that the Mavs have won back-to-back tournaments. If they could win a third tournament this week or anytime during the spring, the Mavericks will make more history as they have never won more than two tournaments in the same academic year.
Prior to this year's start, the Mavs last did so in 2022-23 when they won the RJGA South Central Region Shootout in the fall and the RJGA Palm Valley Classic in the spring.
In 2010-11, the Mavs also won two tournaments defeating host Adams State in a pair of dual-format events.
Up Next
This week's tournament will wrap up the Mavs' fall season. They are currently slated to begin the spring season at the Visit Stockton Division II Invitational in Stockton, California on Feb. 23-24.
