Defending national Div. II men’s champs from Colorado Christian University finish regular season with 8 team titles in 9 tournaments — and many of the wins were lopsided; CSU’s Christoph Bleier claims individual victory in Oregon
By Gary Baines – 3/25/2025
It figures to go down as one of the top regular seasons ever by a Colorado-based college golf program.
The Colorado Christian University men’s squad, coming off a national NCAA Division II title in 2024, wrapped up its regular season on Tuesday with a runaway team victory at the Stack Cougar-Burro Collegiate in Buckeye, Ariz.
That means CCU finished the regular season with eight team titles in nine tournaments. And in the only event which they didn’t win, the Cougars placed second — and it was an NCAA Division I competition.
In another way to think about it, CCU beat 125 teams and lost to one, Division I No. 44-ranked North Carolina-Charlotte by four strokes in the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate a month ago.
And the Cougars have not only won this season, they’ve been dominant. In their eight Division II tournaments, the average win margin was more than 19 strokes.
Going back to the end of last season, Colorado Christian has captured team tournament titles in nine of its last 10 tournaments.
On Tuesday, the Cougars prevailed by 36 strokes over runner-up Colorado Mesa. It marked CCU’s second team title in four days as the Cougars won the Hot Dirt Desert Shootout on Friday, also in Arizona.
Individually, Adam Duncan of CCU birdied the final hole of regulation to tie fellow senior Cole Beyer of Colorado Mesa at 11 under par. Duncan went 68-71-66, while Beyer carded rounds of 70-70 and a bogey-free 65 on Tuesday. In a playoff, Duncan prevailed for the title.
CCU players have claimed or shared nine individual championships this season — Duncan (four), Xavier Bighaus (two), Sungyeop Cho (two, including one tie) and Sangha Park (one tie).
CCU won’t return to action until it tries to defend its crown at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship April 20-22 in Boulder City, Nev.
For all the scores from Buckeye, Ariz., CLICK HERE.
— Elsewhere in local college golf this week, senior Christoph Bleier of Colorado State, nearing the end of his college golf days, claimed the individual title at The Duck Invitational in Eugene, Ore., on Tuesday. It marked the first time in his college career that the Austrian has earned an individual championship outright. On three previous occasions, Bleier shared first place at the end of regulation; he tied for first in one of those and lost in playoffs on the other two occasions. This time, Bleier went 64-71-68 for an 10-under-par total, good for a two-stroke victory. CSU, winner of three team titles this season, battled with Wyoming and Oregon down the stretch for the team championship on Tuesday, but the host Ducks prevailed by one stroke over co-runners-up CSU and Wyoming. SCORES … University of Colorado women’s golfers went 1-2, with sophomore Francesca Sumcad (68-72) earning the win and freshman Ellen O’Shaughnessy (72-70) finishing runner-up, at the Southern Colorado Open at Walking Stick in Pueblo on Monday. The two CU players were competing only as individuals at the event, which featured mainly NCAA Division II and junior college players. Host CSU-Pueblo was the top Colorado team finisher, placing third out of 13 schools, six strokes behind champion Simon Fraser. SCORES … University of Denver junior Jack Dozer recorded the first top-10 finish of his college career on Tuesday by tying for seventh in the Bell Bank “Pay It Forward” Collegiate in Litchfield Park, Ariz. Dozer recorded scores of 69-68-74 to end up at 5 under par, five back of winner Zachary May of Iowa State. As a team, DU tied for fifth place out of 16 schools. SCORES
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. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com