GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After a very strong fall season, the nationally-ranked Colorado Mesa University men's golf team will get what they hope will be an extended spring season going on Sunday when the Mavs travel to Boulder City, Nevada for the Las Vegas Desert Classic.
 
Twenty teams, including ten of those ranked in the national top 25 according to the initial Bushnell/Golfweek Division II Coaches Poll, are slated to compete in the 54-hole tournament with single rounds on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
 
Shotgun starts will begin at 11:30 a.m. PST (12:30 p.m. Mountain) on Sunday and 8 a.m. (9 a.m. Mountain) on Monday and Tuesday.
 
Missouri St.-Louis is the tournament host.
 
Live Scoring for the tournament can be found here.
 
A look at the field
 
The tournament will have a national championship feel with each of the top three and six of the top eight teams according to the latest Division II Coaches' Poll, which was released on Friday, included in the field.
 
Poll No. 1 and defending national champion Colorado Christian, No. 2 North Georgia and No. 3 West Florida headline the list while No. 6 Lincoln Memorial, No. 7 Oklahoma Christian and No. 8 Lee will also be in attendance.
 
Four other teams further down in the top 25 poll will also compete, a group that includes No. 13 Florida Southern, No. 16 St. Mary's as well as the 22^nd ranked Mavs and the 25^th-ranked UMSL Tritons, who are hosting the event.
 
A look at the rankings
 
The Mavericks also sit 23^rd in the latest SCOREBOARD Powered by clippd National Rankings, which will eventually play a major factor in the NCAA Division II Super Regional Selection process.  That No. 23 ranking is the fourth highest in the South Central Region behind Colorado Christian, Oklahoma Christian and St. Mary's, teams the Mavs will get an opportunity to play in their spring opener.
 
UT Tyler, 27^th in the national scoreboard rankings and Dallas Baptist, which sits 40^th, are also in the Las Vegas Desert Classic.
 
Beyer at 7

Maverick senior Cole Beyer is ranked seventh nationally in the SCOREBOARD individual rankings.  He posted a pair of wins during an impressive fall season.
 
Colorado Christian has the top two and three of the top four individuals in the rankings in Sungyeop Cho, Adam Duncan and Sangha park.  Fifth-ranked Colton Swartz of Florida Southern and sixth-ranked Leandro Mihaich of Oklahoma Christian will also be in the Las Vegas Desert Classic.
 
Beyer posted a scoring average of 68.75 in the fall, recording wins at both the Bishop Invitational and Ryan Palmer Foundation Invitational.  He also had two other top-5 finishes and posted ten rounds out of 16 in the 60's.
 
False start
 
The Mavericks were slated to begin their spring season on Feb. 17 at the SoCo Collegiate in Pueblo. 
 
The Mavs were on site but that tournament was canceled due to inclement weather before the Mavs were able to tee off.  Some of the other players in the individual-format tournament got a few holes in but the event was declared unofficial.
 
A look back at the fall
 
The Mavericks recorded a 60-14-3 (.799) head-to-head record throughout the fall season, claiming three second place finishes in the six tournaments, while finishing no lower than eighth throughout the fall.
 
They also tied for the team lead at the Bishop Invitational on Sept. 26-27 but lost a scorecard playoff.
 
The Mavs averaged 285.25 strokes per round as a team and had individual players record 37 rounds below par.

The Mavs also set a single-round program scoring record of 268 and a 54-hole program record of 821 at the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invitational in Amarillo, Texas.

The squad played a tournament in Colorado, two in Washington, one in Texas and two in Hawai'i throughout the fall, facing many of the top teams in Division II throughout the season.

To view the complete season statistics, click here.
 
Lineup Look
 
Maverick Head Coach Scott Sullivan has selected Cole Beyer, Timmy Cavarno, Luke Wagstaff, Leo Lavalle and Julien Harrington to make up the Maverick lineup for the spring-opening tournament.
 
Beyer, Cavarno, Wagstaff and Lavalle were all a part of the regular CMU five in the fall, playing in all 16 rounds and six tournaments.  Harrington, a redshirt sophomore from Kuna, Idaho, will be making his first collegiate start.
 
Cavarno had two top-10 finishes and averaged 72.31 strokes per round in the fall while Lavalle and Wagstaff were right behind with 72.38 and 73.69 scoring averages.
 
Spring Slate
 
The Mavs are slated to compete in four regular season tournaments in the lead-up to the championship segment of the schedule.
 
After this week's tournament, the Mavs will compete in both the single-day Hot Dirt Desert Shootout on Mar. 21 and the The Stack Cougar-Burro Collegiate from Mar. 23-25 in Arizona.  Both of those tournaments will be co-hosted by Colorado Christian and Mines.
 
The Mavs will then be back in Goodyear, Arizona for the RJGA Palm Valley Classic on Apr. 7-8 before competing in the RMAC Championships from Apr. 20-22.
 
They will then hope to be selected for May 8-10 NCAA South Central/West Super Regional in Riverside, California, which will qualify teams and individuals for the May 19-23 national championships in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
 
Scouting Trip
 
The spring opener will also give the Mavs a chance to take a sneak peak at the Boulder Creek Golf Course, which will also play host to the RMAC Championships later this spring.
  
The Mavs had a similar opportunity in 2024, finishing 11^th with a team score of 870 in March, before parlaying that experience to a second place finish and team score of 843 at the RMAC Championships, finishing only nine shots behind Colorado Christian, which went on to win the national title as well.

CMU is one of four RMAC teams in this week's tournament joining Colorado Christian, CSU Pueblo and the Colorado School of Mines.
 
Regional Streak
 
The Mavericks have qualified as a team for the NCAA Tournament in each of the past six years, a run they will look to continue this year.  In 2024, the Mavs fell just two strokes shy of advancing to the NCAA Division II National Championships after taking sixth place at the South Central/West Super Regional.
 
CMU made the national field as a team for the first and only time in 2022.