Four Colorado high schoolers outdid a quartet from UCLA to win the women’s long-course 800 relay at the U.S. national swimming championships in Irvine, Calif., on Thursday night.
The Colorado Stars swam the 4 x 200 in 8:07.45, five seconds better than the Bruins. Jordan Mattern and Kelly Naze are teammates at Cherry Creek, Caroline Piehl swims for Smoky Hill during the prep season, and Melissa Franklin was The Post’s swimmer of the year after a standout freshman season at Regis Jesuit.
Cancun Cup: CSU knows foe.
ESPN finalized its schedules for some of its early-season college basketball tournaments Thursday, so Colorado State knows the identity of its opponent in the inaugural Cancun Governor’s Cup in Mexico. The Rams will play Appalachian State at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 22.
If the Rams win, they play the winner of the Mississippi-Texas State game on Dec. 23. That game will be on ESNPU at 7:30 p.m. Other teams in the tournament are Northeastern, Saint Louis, East Tennessee State and Southern Mississippi.
Connolly finishes ninth in AJGA event.
Brendan Connolly of Castle Rock shot a 4-over-par 76 in the final round of the American Junior Golf Association’s Stockton Sports Commission Junior Open in California and fell from a tie for second place into a tie for ninth.
Connolly finished at even-par 216. David Oraee of Greeley shot a second straight 74 in the final round and finished in a tie for 16th at 220. Beau Hossler of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., won the event, finishing with a 67 to reach 8-under 208 and beat second- round leader Byron Meth of San Diego, who shot a 75 on Thursday, by one stroke.
• Brad Delman of Sonnenalp Golf Course followed up his course record-tying 65 in the first round at Heritage Eagle Bend in Aurora with a 67 to win the Colorado Section PGA Callaway Golf Assistant Championship by one stroke with a 12-under 132.
Delman edged Jason Preeo, the Valor Christian golf coach who made the cut at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
Garmin-Transitions leads in Poland.
Garmin-Transitions is in the lead at the Tour of Poland after Daniel Martin, a 23-year-old Irish rider, won Stage 5 for the Boulder-based team and took the lead in the overall standings in the UCI Pro Tour event.
Martin mounted an attack on the lead group with less than 4 kilometers left in the 149-kilometer stage that included five circuits of a 17.2-kilometer loop in the Tatra Mountains on the border with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Martin’s teammate and mountain specialist Tom Danielson, a former resident of Durango, finished 10th in the stage. Martin has a 14-second lead on Slovakia’s Grega Bole, riding for Lampre-Farnese Vini, in the general classification.
CHL reorganizes.
The Central Hockey League has decided how the league will be organized after five International Hockey League teams joined in June.
The CHL will be split into two conferences, Turner and Berry. The IHL awarded the Turner Cup to its champion beginning in 1945, honoring Joseph Turner, a goalie from Windsor, Ontario, who served in the U.S. Army and was killed in action in Belgium in 1944. N. Thomas Berry Jr. is the current commissioner emeritus of the CHL and was IHL commissioner for 13 years.
Nelson returns as CU track assistant.
Six-time All-American and 2008 Olympian Billy Nelson is returning to the University of Colorado cross country and track and field teams as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, coach Mark Wetmore said.
Wetmore says Nelson, who won three Big 12 titles for CU, will help the team well beyond his ability to recruit. Nelson, who still will run professionally for Nike, was 11th in his heat in the steeplechase in Beijing.
