Defending champ Erie dominates own tourney

BOULDER >> As millions flocked to the eastern United States to catch a glimpse of a rare celestial event on Monday, another eclipse was taking place in Boulder.

Erie girls golf team, with talent unbound, dimmed the rest of the competition with a win at its own Erie Cocoa Classic at the Lake Valley Golf Club, shooting a collective 224 strokes. Secondplace Ralston Valley trailed behind with a score of 248.

It seems the defending state champions aren’t done dominating yet.

Class 4A’s last two individual state champs stayed true to their form, despite battling through a tough course amid windy conditions. While Ralston Valley’s Addison Hines won out with a 1-over-par 71, Erie junior Hadley

Ashton and senior Logan Hale trailed just behind at second and third, carding a 72 and 73, respectively.

Ashton’s second-to-last shot, a missed putt that popped off of the lip of the cup, perfectly encapsulated the kind of day she and the rest of the large field of competitors experienced.

“It was like 20 feet downhill, breaking left to right,” Ashton explained. “Today, I was hitting every left-right breaker left. So I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to actually trust my line, and I know this is the right line.’ I was kind of over the ball, and I just wanted it to go in, so I hit it super hard. I think if I were to go softer and more out to the left, it maybe would have dribbled in, but it just kind of stayed on the right edge.”

Ashton, who won the 4A crown as a freshman in 2022, has decided to take a different