(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
PUEBLO — Going into the second day of the Class 4A girls state golf tournament a year ago, Eric Sargent was in a position to contend. She came away with third place.
This year, she comes out of the first day of the tournament with the individual lead. And she’s ready to make it her championship to lose.
Sargent shot a 3-over 75 to take a one-stroke lead over Colorado Academy’s Caroline Jordaan after day one of the tournament. She made the final the group last year, but was beaten by seniors Jennifer Kupcho of Jefferson Academy and Kylee Sullivan from Cheyenne Mountain.
This year, she hopes to take a lesson from those seniors and close her season out with a state title.
“Every time I come out to the golf course I learn something new,” she said. “It’s just another round that gets me more familiar with the course. I was in some places today that I haven’t been before and hopefully I can continue to put myself in situations where I can score well.”
Sargent teed off on the back nine of the course and bogeyed her second hole of the day. She responded with a birdie on No. 3 and then made a run of four straight pars before adding another birdie. She put up bogeys on 13 and 15, and made double-bogey on 17, but overall kept herself well out of trouble.
“For the most part I had already made a plan of where I wanted to be,” Sargent said. “When I visualize a shot, I tend to be pretty close to hitting it. There were just a couple of holes where that didn’t happen.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
In the team race, Colorado Academy came out of the first round at 28-over as a team. That’s 21 shots better than three-time defending champion Cheyenne Mountain.
The Mustangs are the only team that will look to have a player in the race for the individual title as well as the team championship when play begins on Tuesday.
Jordaan finished her round at with a 4-over 76 and is now in the position of trying to take the top spot individually while helping her team fend of Cheyenne Mountain. If she continues swinging the way she did on Monday, she could have herself a nice Tuesday afternoon.
“I had a good round today,” Jordaan said. “I had a little bit of a rough start getting off the tee, but as the round continued I got some good shots and some birdie opportunities.”
The Indians are going to have a tough task in climbing back into contention. They sit at 49-over as a team and need to make up ground right away. As winners of their last 10 tournaments, the Indians know they have the talent to get back in the tournament, they just need to focus and execute on Tuesday.
“Trying to get focused, it’s so hard because it’s state and you want to do well,” Cheyenne Mountain senior Regina Dillon said. “You try to force it and I know I tried to force today which didn’t help me at all.”
Dillon was the leader for the Indians at 15-over on the day.
But one day does not a state golf tournament make. The Indians will regroup and turn their attention to playing better on Tuesday.
“One round is not going to discourage us,” coach John Carricato said. “We’ll come back tomorrow and we’ll play.”