The conditions and pace of play weren’t ideal, but junior Dylan Livingston and the Durango High School girls golf team made the most of their trip to Grand Junction on Monday, winning the 2026 Chipeta Kick Off Classic to begin the season.
Durango finished first out of 13 teams with a team score of 47-over par. Fruita Monument was second with 60-over par and Montrose was third at 68-over par. The top three scores from each team are combined for the team score.
“It’s one of those tournaments where everybody’s kind of shaking off the rust, and we’re just kind of getting going,” Durango girls golf head coach Kirk Rawles said. “Our golf courses aren’t even open, so just to get up there, get in the mode and get in the right mindset. It was great to go up and get the win.”
Livingston won the tournament at 11-over par on the par-59 course. Fruita’s Addison Larson was second at 13-over par and Steamboat Springs’ Katharina Cosby was third at 15-over par.
After starting 10-over par in her first eight holes, Livingston finished strong, going 1-over par in her last 10 holes, including a birdie at Hole 2.
Livingston overcame a lot of things, including inconsistent greens early in the season and super slow play. There were a ton of players competing at the small Chipeta course, leading to seven-hour rounds. This can upset a regular golfer who isn’t competing for a tournament title like Livingston was. The course, while par is low, has some long par 3s that are challenging for the girls.
She overcame those obstacles to win her second consecutive Chipeta Kick Off Classic.
“Dylan’s round is even that much better because if I were playing, I don’t think I would have stayed out there,” Rawles said. “What happened with the full field, really outside of Dylan and maybe a few of the others, is just mental fatigue.”
Behind Livingston for the Demons was senior Jayden Craig, who finished tied-fourth at 16-over par. Senior Riley Harms finished eighth at 20-over par to round out the scoring positions for the Demons. Sophomore Kierstin Maycock was the only other Demon to finish in the top 20, tied-20th at 30-over par.
Rawles was happy with some of the moments he saw from the other Durango golfers besides Livingston. He knows that they’re just getting started, and it was good for the Demons to see that they can perform well compared to other teams.
Next up for the Demons is a trip to Montrose to play The Bridges on March 30. This will also be the site of the state tournament. Then the Demons will play at Devils Thumb in Delta on March 31.
The Durango girls lacrosse team had an excellent start to the season, winning 19-5 at Summit on Saturday.
Demons girls lacrosse head coach Eric Elliot was a little nervous after Summit scored in the first 30 seconds, but the Demons rallied with six different goal scorers.
“I couldn’t have been happier with how we played,” Elliot said. “The first 30 seconds were a little terrifying … so that made us take a deep breath because we’re still trying to figure out what we have. Then we put it on them … Summit had a real hard time getting the ball out of the midfield. Our midfielders were super aggressive.”
On offense, Durango was led by its big three of juniors Indie Eaton, Teagan Frausto and senior Taylor Babcock. Frausto finished with six goals, Eaton finished with five goals and two assists and Babcock finished with five goals.
“The three of them definitely picked up right where they left off last year,” Elliot said. “We spent a lot of time running it down the field … If the fast break didn’t work, then we’d start distributing it. The fast break usually worked for Indie and Teagan. Taylor was the one who, once we got into the settled attack, and everybody was spread around, Taylor really took advantage of their defense.”
Durango’s game against Summit was the first time junior Jody Holden was the primary goaltender after Fiona Chandler’s graduation. She finished with 12 saves, and Elliot thought she looked like a seasoned veteran who was a wall for the defense. Elliot was happy with how his defense cleared the ball, and that led to Durango leading 8-1 after the first quarter and 12-2 at halftime.
The defensive effort was especially impressive to Elliot, considering senior Scarlett Ramsey and Laurel Dondlinger were the only two returners from last season. Sophomore Quincy Robinson and junior Max Cabanez hadn’t picked up a stick before 2026 and performed admirably on defense.
Elliot was also happy to see sophomore Lucy Wilson, junior Lana Brooks and sophomore Kaitlyn Downey score their first career goals.
Durango played at Montrose on Thursday at 4 p.m. Elliot said the team has been working on draw control this week in practice as the team dives into 4A Mountain West League play.
The Durango High School boys lacrosse started the season on the right note, beating Summit, 8-3, on Saturday.
Senior Henry Huff led the Demons on offense with three goals and an assist. Junior Logan Muraro was the Demons’ top facilitator with two assists to go with one goal.
It was an impressive offensive showing for the Demons, considering they were only 25% at the faceoff X.
Durango senior Keegan Wilson finished with 14 saves.
The Demons had their home opener on Thursday against Telluride at 4 p.m. No results were available at press time.
The Durango girls soccer program usually faces some of the top teams in the state to begin the season, and this year was no different with the Demons losing 5-0 at Ralston Valley on Saturday.
Ralston Valley has been one of the top teams in 5A with an average winning percentage of 78 over the past two seasons. There’s light at the end of the tunnel for the Demons after what happened last year. Durango lost to Ralston Valley 6-0 and still finished 14-4 overall and 10-0 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League.
“It really gives us a good glimpse of what our opponents will look like once we start getting into the playoffs,” Durango girls soccer head coach Zac Keeler said. “Our ladies did a really fine job. Our second half was our better play, even though we got scored on a bit more … but our girls worked hard. They definitely proved themselves in their individual battles.”
Ralston Valley led 2-0 at the half and ended up with five different goal scorers. Keeler said the Mustangs played a high press on Durango’s goal kicks, which didn’t give Durango a lot of time to make good passes when the Demons got the ball, resulting in long balls that didn’t work out. Ralston Valley also had some success going down the sideline and crossing the ball in front of goal, according to Keeler.
There were a few bright spots for the Demons, and one of them was senior goalkeeper Ryne Neiman finishing with a career-high 25 saves to begin her fourth year as the starter.
“Three of which were just top-level type of saves: low, high, mid-range,” Keeler said about Neiman. “I also have to give my defense a shoutout because they put Ralston in bad positions, and their shots weren’t as great, allowing Ryne to have some easy saves.”
Durango’s depth on defense also shone through due to injuries. Sophomore Sierra Phillips only played eight minutes due to a sprain that has her in a boot. Senior Amelia Jensen stepped in a center back, but had a quad injury, and she left the second half. Junior Gracie Fitzpatrick slid into the role, along with junior Jensen Quenzler. Keeler was very impressed with junior Aletta Holley’s performance on defense.
The Demons have nearly two weeks off before they host Delta on March 25. It will be a revenge game for Durango since it lost 3-2 at Delta last season. That loss was the final defeat of the regular season for Durango.
