ELIZABETH – There is a certain Ernie Els quality to Vail Christian senior Connor Downey.

The comparisons to the smooth swinging South African are easy to see in his long, lanky and rhythmic golf swing. But what made Els and now Downey so great is the part you don't really see. Neither one of them ever gets too high or too low and that calm demeanor on the golf course is precious.

On Tuesday afternoon, Downey -- who admitted the butterflies were in stomach all day -- rallied from a two shot Day 1 deficit to Montezuma-Cortez's Thayer Plewe, built as much as a three shot lead midway through at Spring Valley Golf Club and then held on for a one shot victory to claim the Saints' first medalist in the sport.

"That really is how I try to approach this game, I just try to stay relaxed. Internally though, there was a lot going on," said Downey, who got to celebrate at the end with his father Jim and first year Vail Christian coach Maddie Rhodes. "I try to talk to the other guys and that keeps me relaxed, and playing with Thayer really helped."

It was all about the mountains and Western Slope in Class 3A. In addition to Downey's win over Plewe, last year's state champion University of Denver-bound senior Nic Pevny of Aspen's third place finish helped guide the Skiers to their first state title since 2018.

"It feels really good and its is really fun to win it as a team and celebrate with all of the guys," said Pevny, who teamed with Sky Sosna, William Stiller and Lucas Lee to help Aspen (447) to a four shot win over defending champion Colorado Academy (451) and by nine over Vail Mountain (456). "It's tough to repeat. Connor played really well, so congrats to him, but I'm really happy to win as a team."



After a five birdies on his outward nine, Downey made the turn at a blustery Spring Valley with a three shot lead. It grew to four after another birdie at short par-4 11th and then went right back to two after a double bogey on No. 12.

The rollercoaster ride was on and on the heels of a thrilling Ryder Cup, the final six holes basically became match play between Downey and Plewe.

"Totally, 100 percent. I was two up on him and it was just a matter of beating Thayer," said Downey, who finished third last year in Gunnison behind Pevny and Plewe.

He took a two shot lead to No. 18 and things got a little shaky after his second shot found the fairway bunker, making for a tricky third.

"For some reason I didn't think there was that much room over to the left (on that second shot) and I aimed for the top of the mound in the bunker and it only faded a little bit," he said. "It was a nervous shot for sure."

Downey settled himself and played a perfect third into the center of the green on the par-5 finishing hole. Plewe missed the green left and chipped up to within four feet for birdie, making the 30-foot lag putt for Downey even more important. And as he did all day, he snuggled it to within 18 inches and calmly rolled in the championship winner.

"I really don't know what it means yet for my school," Downey said. "I kind of feel like a lot of people don't really care about golf in my school, but I think this will certainly change some things."



Team results 
 

Pos	Team	Thru	Overall	Round	R1	R2	Total
1	Aspen	F	447	224	223	224	447
2	Colorado Academy	F	451	219	232	219	451
33	Vail Mountain	F	456	224	232	224	456
34	Sterling	F	456	223	233	223	456
5	Lutheran	F	457	230	227	230	457
6	Montezuma Cortez	F	464	234	230	234	464
7	Kent Denver	F	468	234	234	234	468
8	Holy Family	F	472	230	242	230	472
9	Eaton	F	484	247	237	247	484
10	Severance	F	497	249	248	249	497
11	Gunnison	F	499	249	250	249	499
12	Pagosa Springs	F	531	274	257	274	531
13	Basalt	F	499	256	243	256	499

Individual results 
 

Pos	TM	Player	Thru	Overall	Round	R1	R2	Total
1	Vail Christian	Connor Downey	F	139	70	69	70	139
2	Montezuma Cortez	Thayer Plewe	F	140	73	67	73	140
3	Aspen	Nic Pevny	F	142	69	73	69	142
4	Strasburg	Jacob Gilbert	F	145	71	74	71	145
5	Colorado Academy	Jack Pashel	F	146	70	76	70	146
6	Sterling	Jace Wright	F	148	71	77	71	148
6	Vail Mountain	Tiki Jaffe	F	148	73	75	73	148
6	Lutheran	AJ Papajohn	F	148	73	75	73	148
9	Sterling	Tayleb Schaefer	F	149	76	73	76	149
10	Colorado Academy	J.T. Timmers	F	150	73	77	73	150
10	Aspen	Sky Sosna	F	150	76	74	76	150
12	Kent Denver	Brendan Archer	F	151	78	73	78	151
12	Holy Family	Rudiger Heitz	F	151	72	79	72	151
14	Prospect Ridge	Caden Koole	F	152	77	75	77	152
15	Vail Mountain	Felix Gruner	F	154	76	78	76	154
16	Vail Mountain	Stewie Bruce	F	155	75	80	75	155
16	Eaton	Peyton Walker	F	155	77	78	77	155
16	Aspen	William Stiller	F	155	79	76	79	155
16	Denver Academy	Will Rinehart	F	155	82	73	82	155
20	Colorado Academy	Bo Turnage	F	156	76	80	76	156
20	Bishop Machebeuf	Sean McGarrity	F	156	77	79	77	156
20	Cedaredge	Brysen Harris	F	156	82	74	82	156
20	Ouray	Hayden Hart	F	156	82	74	82	156
24	Kent Denver	Jack Jacobsen	F	157	75	82	75	157
25	Montezuma Cortez	Vince Lopez	F	158	78	80	78	158
25	Basalt	Garrett Exelbert	F	158	84	74	84	158
25	Lutheran	Jackson Lowe	F	158	81	77	81	158
25	Colorado Academy	TJ Giordano	F	158	79	79	79	158
29	Holy Family	Benedict Achziger	F	159	76	83	76	159
29	Lutheran	Josh Faulkenberry	F	159	76	83	76	159
29	Lutheran	Kaleb Lathrop	F	159	84	75	84	159
29	Sterling	Dylan DiOrio	F	159	76	83	76	159
29	Vail Mountain	Hunter Salani	F	159	80	79	80	159
34	Prospect Ridge	Jason Arbuckle	F	160	81	79	81	160
34	Eaton	Cache Sanger	F	160	81	79	81	160
34	Alamosa	Garrett Smith	F	160	87	73	87	160
37	Monte Vista	Colton Mellott	F	161	83	78	83	161
38	Lamar	Tyler McTaggart	F	162	82	80	82	162
38	Gunnison	Connor Zummach	F	162	80	82	80	162
40	Kent Denver	Jackson Martorello	F	163	81	82	81	163
40	Severance	Carson Fagan	F	163	82	81	82	163
42	Stratton	Braden Wedel	F	164	84	80	84	164
42	Holy Family	Drake Krommenhoek	F	164	82	82	82	164
44	Rye	Chance Donlon	F	165	83	82	83	165
44	Severance	Austin Guerette	F	165	86	79	86	165
44	Kent Denver	Ben Ramsden-Wood	F	165	86	79	86	165
47	Montezuma Cortez	Kaden Huff	F	166	83	83	83	166
47	Elizabeth	Parker Gaudreault	F	166	84	82	84	166
49	Moffat County	Dave Andujo	F	167	89	78	89	167
50	Gunnison	Skylor Wild	F	168	85	83	85	168
50	Las Animas	Damien Baca	F	168	80	88	80	168
50	Sterling	Ryder McConnell	F	168	83	85	83	168
50	Moffat County	Aron  Jennings	F	168	88	80	88	168
50	Frontier Academy	Daniel Wyperd	F	168	87	81	87	168
55	Basalt	Alec Claassen	F	169	86	83	86	169
55	Severance	Brycen Farris	F	169	81	88	81	169
55	Aspen	Lucas Lee	F	169	85	84	85	169
55	Gunnison	Preston Pike	F	169	84	85	84	169
55	Manitou Springs	Davis Mack	F	169	85	84	85	169
55	Pagosa Springs	Jack Walker	F	169	89	80	89	169
55	Eaton	Cole Lockey	F	169	89	80	89	169
55	Berthoud	Coyle Hagerty	F	169	90	79	90	169
63	Swallows Charter Academy	Ben Compton	F	170	86	84	86	170
63	Elizabeth	Cayden Kilduff	F	170	87	83	87	170
65	Salida	Aiden Hadley	F	171	84	87	84	171
65	Monte Vista	Kaden Mellott	F	171	85	86	85	171
65	Holyoke	Ty Dirks	F	171	89	82	89	171
65	Resurrection Christian	Gage Meis	F	171	87	84	87	171
69	Basalt	Braden Exelbert	F	172	86	86	86	172
70	Del Norte	Ben Parra	F	174	88	86	88	174
71	SkyView Academy	Landon Webb	F	175	89	86	89	175
71	SkyView Academy	Joshua Reeves	F	175	89	86	89	175
73	Pagosa Springs	Ethan Robel	F	176	91	85	91	176
73	Buena Vista	Chandler Smethers	F	176	87	89	87	176
75	Salida	Eric O’Connor	F	179	89	90	89	179
75	Berthoud	Landon Kuntz	F	179	93	86	93	179
77	Peak to Peak	Rasesh Bhandari	F	180	93	87	93	180
78	Holy Family	Dustin Fouts	F	181	100	81	100	181
79	Alamosa	Kyler Liddell	F	182	94	88	94	182
80	La Junta	Justin Paolucci	F	184	90	94	90	184
81	Pagosa Springs	Braylon Cotts	F	186	94	92	94	186
81	St. Mary’s	Dillon Barrett	F	186	93	93	93	186
83	St. Mary’s	Jack Meifert	F	193	94	99	94	193
84	Denver Academy	Will Stewart	F	204	109	95	109	204