Colorado Christian University becomes first Colorado-based college program to win national team championship in golf; Cougars defeat top-ranked North Georgia in men’s NCAA DII title match; Coloradan Lily Nelson places 7th in women’s DII
By Gary Baines – 5/25/2024
Colorado Christian University made history again on Saturday — this time taking home the biggest prize in men’s NCAA Division II golf.
The Cougars won the DII national title, appropriately defeating the top-ranked team in the title match, North Georgia, 3-2 in medal-match play in Winter Garden, Fla.
CCU thus becomes the first Colorado-based college program to claim a men’s DII national golf team title. In fact, it’s the first Colorado college golf squad — men or women, any classification — to earn a national title from a team perspective.
After previously guaranteeing itself the best national tournament finish ever for a men’s DII golf team in Colorado, CCU swept its three medal-match play matches after finishing sixth in the stroke-play portion of the event.
Prior to this year, the best NCAA DII national finishes by Colorado-based men’s golf teams were fifth places by Colorado State University-Pueblo in 2022 and by Fort Lewis in 2011.
Saturday marked the fifth team victory of the season — and certainly one that’s unforgettable — for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champions from Lakewood.
In Saturday’s title match, scoring individual victories for veteran head coach Mark Hull’s Colorado Christian squad were Dylan Arthur, a senior from Frisco, Texas; Peyton Jones, a sophomore from Roswell, N.M.; and Adam Duncan, a junior from Bakersfield, Calif. Arthur and Duncan shot 67 vs. North Georgia, with Duncan clinching the team title with a birdie on the final hole which gave him a two-stroke individual victory.
In fact, Duncan and Jones went 3-0 individually in medal-match play on Friday and Saturday. Rounding out the CCU championship team were junior Xavier Bighaus from Melissa, Texas; senior Dylan Arthur from Frisco, Texas; and freshman Bradley Mulder from Spokane, Wash.
The national title was the first in CCU athletics history.
“This team of guys that we have are some of the best quality character guys,” Hull told NCAA.com. “ … They take pride in exemplifying Christian character — the Christian that’s written on that (golf) bag. That’s our goal — to represent Christ well in everything that we do. And we’re excited to have this platform to do it.”
For all the results from the men’s DII nationals, CLICK HERE.
Lily Nelson (left) of Commerce City and Henderson State.
Meanwhile, in the women’s NCAA DII national championships in Winter Garden, Fla., sophomore Lily Nelson of Commerce City and Henderson State tied for seventh place individually this week.
Nelson, a graduate of Prairie View High School, posted rounds of 70-74-69 for a 3-under-par total, which left her six strokes behind national champion Gabby Woods of Findlay.
In addition to the individual portion of the national tournament, Nelson helped her Henderson State (Ark.) squad reach the quarterfinals of the team match play portion of the championship, where HSU lost to 2023 national champion Dallas Baptist.
Nelson won the Great American Conference individual title in 2023. HSU went to the national DII semis last year.
For the women’s DII national results, CLICK HERE.
Also this week, fellow Coloradan Jessica Mason (Trinity University) finished eighth individually at the women’s DIII nationals.
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