The University of Denver women’s golf team will compete in its second consecutive national tournament this week, concluding a highly successful school year for the Pioneers’ athletic department.
The golf team, led by junior Dawn Shockley of Estes Park, will be the school’s eighth program to make it to a national tournament or meet in 2007-08. The five-player group follows skiing, hockey, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, gymnastics and men’s lacrosse to nationals.
The ski team captured the national title.
“It’s incredible,” Shockley said of DU’s athletic success. “I’ve lived in Colorado all my life, and I can honestly say I never knew anything about DU sports until I came here.
“But it feels really good to be a part of a school that has had so many Division I teams make it to nationals. It’s a great thing to be a part of.”
DU begins the 24-team national tournament Tuesday in Albuquerque. The Pioneers, who finished 20th a year ago, are ranked ninth nationally.
The five-time Sun Belt Conference champions are the dominant women’s college golf program on the Front Range. In comparison, the University of Colorado and Colorado State have never made it to nationals.
“People think DU isn’t in a strong conference, but it’s our national ranking the past two years that has helped us advance to regionals, and then we’ve played our way (to nationals),” Pioneers coach Sammie Chergo said Sunday from Albuquerque.
Shockley, believe it or not, might be DU’s best female athlete. In addition to being a great golfer, she’s a terrific basketball player and long-distance runner. She won the Class 3A state cross country title as a freshman at Estes Park High School, was named three-time all-state basketball player, and was named 3A’s Miss Basketball as a senior.
She competes only in golf at DU but stays in shape by playing hoops and running outdoors.
“I never thought about college golf until my sophomore year of high school,” Shockley said. “I loved basketball, and we had a really good team. I ran cross country to get ready for basketball. I enjoyed the physical part of competing, but people started saying I had a really nice swing and I should look at golf, and here I am.”
Chergo dubs Shockley “a natural,” because she didn’t play competitive golf until high school.
“Never had a lesson and completely self-taught,” Chergo said of Shockley. “She’s the most athletic player I’ve ever coached. She’s got great touch and great feel. And with the experience she’s getting now, she’s getting better and better every day.”
Shockley credits her brother for getting her involved in golf.
“When I was 11, my brother worked at the golf course in Estes Park, and I would help out and work for free tokens, like picking up range baskets, and they’d give me tokens to practice,” she said.
At age 14, she officially began working at the golf course, and free rounds were her bonus.
“I didn’t start playing competitively until high school. The summer before my senior year was the first time I got into national events,” she said.
DU’s five players will compete in four rounds, with the four lowest scores counting each day.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Chergo said. “This team is much more mature than last year. And we’re playing in Albuquerque, which is very similar to Colorado. We’re looking forward to a real positive week.”
INDIANAPOLIS 500 ACTION
Sunday’s 92nd race first unified event since 1995.
The Indianapolis 500 needs no introduction. But Sunday’s 92nd race has a unique story line.
It will be the first race since 1995 in which the best available teams and drivers will compete together on the grand stage.
In January, the best in the business agreed to end the open-wheel feud between the former Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing League, and they’re all entered in the IRL-sanctioned Indy 500.
Vail’s Buddy Lazier, right, the 1996 Indy winner and 2001 IRL champion, will make his 16th start at Indy. The 40-year-old rallied to qualify for the 33-car field Sunday during “Bump Day,” the final day of qualifying, and will start on the back row.
TV GAME OF THE WEEK
Spurs at Hornets, Game 7.
Just one game remains in the NBA conference semifinals, and tonight’s Game 7 matchup between San Antonio and New Orleans should be a dandy. Catch it on TNT at 6:30 p.m.
Tonight’s winner will face the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals, while Chauncey Billups, below, leads the Detroit Pistons against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern finals.
NHL HISTORY SAYS. . .
Is it in the Stars?
The Dallas Stars are looking to join the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 1975 New York Islanders as the third team to come back from a 3-0 series deficit to win an NHL playoff series. And the Stars are aligned.
There was a 33-year span between the Maple Leafs’ and Islanders’ feats, and guess what? It’s been 33 years since the Islanders pulled it off.
Dallas has won two straight games against the Detroit Red Wings, and the teams meet tonight for Game 6 of the Western Conference finals in Big D (6 p.m., Versus).
Those dreaded Red Wings — the guys who eliminated our Avalanche in the second round of the playoffs — appeared unbeatable a week ago after winning their ninth consecutive playoff game to take a 3-0 series lead over the Stars.
But Detroit has produced only one goal in each of its past two games and will likely again be without prized forward Johan Franzen, the Avs killer who leads the league with 12 playoff goals.
Franzen thinks he sustained a concussion in the Colorado series, when we all thought he was just knocking out the Avs.
ON THE ROAD
Crush, Outlaws leave town.
Indoor football’s Colorado Crush and outdoor lacrosse’s Denver Outlaws each played before announced crowds of 11,000-plus at home over the weekend. The Crush was crushed, but the Outlaws prevailed.
This week, the Crush visits the San Jose SaberCats on Saturday (8:30 p.m., FSN), after the Outlaws play at the Washington Bayhawks (5 p.m.).
