CSU men win Gene Miranda Falcon Invite at Air Force Academy for 2nd straight year
By Gary Baines – 9/12/2023
For the second straight year, the Colorado State University men’s golf team swept the team and individual titles at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational at the Air Force Academy.
And for the second consecutive tournament this season, a Ram claimed an individual championship.
A year after winning by 25 strokes at Eisenhower Golf Club, CSU prevailed by 11 on Tuesday, ending up at 13 under par as a team.
And after Connor Jones took home the individual Gene Miranda championship in 2022, teammate Christoph Bleier did the honors on Tuesday. The junior from Austria shared the top spot in regulation with Caleb VanArragon of Valparaiso, with both checking in at 13 under par. Bleier went 65-71-67 at Eisenhower. And though he lost on the first hole of a playoff, his performance will technically go down as a victory by college golf standards.
The win came just five days after Jones was the top individual at CSU’s own Ram Masters Invitational.
Jones and freshman Jake Rodgers (both tied for ninth place) joined Bleier in posting top-10 finishes on Tuesday. Also sharing ninth place was the University of Northern Colorado freshman Pietro Boeris.
The team victory was the first for CSU since it won its first three tournaments of last season. It was team title No. 4 overall for second-year CSU head coach Michael Wilson.
As for the other Colorado-based teams who competed in the Miranda Invite, the UNC tied for 16th place and host Air Force was 23rd.
For all the scores from the Gene Miranda Invite, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. He was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com