GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's golf team will look to defend its' 2025 team title when the Mavs host the second annual San Juan Intercollegiate presented by Timberline Bank on Monday and Tuesday.
The 54-hole event will be played at The Bridges Golf & Country Club in Montrose, where the Mavericks posted a winning team score of 828, their second best in program history, to claim last year's crown by five shots.
Monday's action will feature two rounds and 36 holes, beginning with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday's third and final round will begin with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
Live scoring is slated to be available throughout the tournament at:
https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/242484/scoring/participants
Last Time Out
The Mavericks opened their season in Sheridan, Wyoming, finishing fifth out of 12 teams at the Travis Roy Memorial Invitational. The 54-hole event was played over three days between Sunday-Tuesday.
The Mavs posted a final team score of 878 (+14) and ended up 25 shots ahead of sixth place MSU Billings.
The Mavs had two players in the top ten of the individual standings and two others who tied for 12
th. Sophomore
Henry Starr led the Maverick effort, taking sixth with a 54-hole score of 218 (+2). He posted a 2-under par round of 70 in the opening round.
Freshman
Colby Hutton tied for seventh at 219 (+3) and had rounds of 72, 73 and 74 on the par 72-course.
Meanwhile,
Baptiste Laborde and
Luke Wagstaff tied for 12
th at 221 (+5).
Recaps from each of the three days can be seen here:
Who's Competing
Maverick Head Coach
Scott Sullivan has not yet determined his lineup for the tournament but plans to have the entire team play in it, with some members playing on the Mavs' "B" team.
The Opposition
The field for Monday and Tuesday's tournament is strong includes ten teams, including the Mavs and four of their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rivals in Colorado Christian, Colorado School of Mines, CSU Pueblo and Fort Lewis.
Three other South Central Region and Lone Star Conference foes in Texas A&M International, Western New Mexico and West Texas A&M will also compete.
West Region and California Collegiate Athletic Association representative CSU Monterey Bay will win also play while junior college power Garden City (Kan.) Community College rounds out the team list.
The Mavs, Mines and Fort Lewis will also field "B" teams.
Fierce Competition
The tournament should be quite competitive and will including four teams ranked between 16
th and 22
nd in the preseason edition of the Bushnell/Golfweek Division II Coaches Poll, recently released by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
The Mavs are 22
nd and just behind No. 16 West Texas A&M, No. 18 Colorado Christian and No. 19 CSU Pueblo. CSU Monterey Bay and Mines are also receiving votes in the poll.
Seven of the competing teams qualified as a team for the NCAA South Central/West Regional Championships while two others (Fort Lewis & Mines) qualified individual players.
Colorado Christian and West Texas A&M also advanced to the NCAA Division II National Championships and finished eighth and ninth in the stroke play portion, respectively.
Garden City finished 13
th at last year's NJCAA Championship.
RMAC Poll
The Mavericks topped the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, which was released on Aug. 25. After winning the conference crown, the Mavs received five of six possible first place votes and tallied 34 points overall.
CSU Pueblo was picked second with 28 points and received a first place vote along with three second place predictions. The Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Christian were tied for third in the poll with 26.
Westminster (15), Fort Lewis (11) and South Dakota Mines (7) rounded out the poll.
Preseason Honors
Maverick senior
Dylan Everett was also named to the 8-man Preseason All-RMAC team, which was made of the top returning players from last year's all-conference voting process.
He earned First Team All-RMAC accolades last year after posting a 72.39 scoring average to rank second on the team. He had four top ten finishes throughout the season and posted 15 par or better rounds, including nine in the 60's.
Title Defense
As mentioned in the opening, the Mavericks won last year's San Juan Intercollegiate title by five shots over West Texas A&M. The Mavs posted two of their three best rounds of the entire season in the first two rounds to build a 12-shot lead and then held on for the win.
All five Mavs on the primary "A" team plus another from the "B" squad finished inside the top 20 of the individual standings.
Two review last year's recaps, please click here:
Day 1 |
Day 2
Starr Showing
Maverick sophomore
Henry Starr recorded his third career top-10 finish at the Travis Roy Memorial Invitational, taking sixth place with a 54-hole score of 218 to lead the team.
As a freshman in 2025-26, the Englewood, Colorado native had placed second at the Coyote Classic and tied for ninth at last year's San Juan Intercollegiate, where he posted scores of 207 and 209, which are the only two better 54-hole tournament scores he has had in his career.
Impressive Debut
Maverick freshman
Colby Hutton also had an impressive start to the season and his career at last week's tournament. The Las Vegas, Nevada native finished second on the team and tied for seventh in the overall standings with his 54-hole total of 219 (+3) in Wyoming. His score was counted towards the Mavs' team total in all three rounds.
Hutton was the 5A Nevada State Champion for Bishop Gorman High School last season.
A look back
The Mavericks capped the 2026 RMAC Tournament Championship for the first time in program history, earning an automatic spot for the NCAA South Central/West Super Regional, which the Mavs played in for the seventh straight year while finishing ninth.
The Mavs won three of their 11 tournaments last year and placed third of fourth in four others. They finished with a 287.51 team scoring average, the second best in program history and ended up with a No. 20 national ranking in the NCAA Division II SCOREBOARD rankings.
Meet the Newcomers
The Mavs have five newcomers on their 11-man roster for the 2026-27 season.
The group includes four freshman and transfer
Will Alexander, who attended and was on the NCAA Division I University of San Diego Torrero roster. He hails from Lavardens, France and was a standout prep player at the Merchiston Castle School in Scotland.
The freshman class including
Cruz Carter of Scottsdale, Arizona,
Colby Hutton of Las Vegas, Nevada,
Ben Sander of Parker, Colorado and
Charlie Spencer of Sydney, Australia.
Hutton, who is expected to make his CMU debut on Sunday, won the 5A Nevada State individual championship in the spring and helped the Bishop Gorman High School Gaels win 2023 and 2026 team titles.
Carter also helped his Notre Dame Prep team win a pair of Arizona State titles and personally earned honorable mention all-state honors.
Sander earned first team all-state honors in the fall of 2023 while at Regis Jesuit High School, where he claimed All-Continental League accolades in all four years of his prep career.
Spencer was named as the 2024 and 2025 Champion Golfer of the Year while representing The Scots College in Australia's largest city.
Up Next
The Mavericks will have a short turn-around before heading across an international boarder.
The Mavs will play at the Shootout at PGA Riviera Maya in Akumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico between Sunday-Tuesday (Sept. 27-29).
Western New Mexico University is the host for that event, played at the Tulum Country Club.
