Quick-study Cabanting captures 5A Metro golf title

Chelsea Cabanting, the freshly anointed 5A Metro League girls' golf champion, is the quickest of quick studies.

During the first full round of golf of her life, she was stumping along at the Air Force Academy's Eisenhower Blue course with her father, Darrell, when she drained a tough downhill putt for birdie.

“Do you know how long it took for me to get my first birdie?” he asked.

“It took me seven holes,” she responded, unimpressed.

Less than three years later, the Pine Creek senior completed her quest to become the league champion by shooting an 89 Thursday at the Lady Trojan Invitational at Cheyenne Shadows Golf Club.

The score gave her a four-tournament aggregate score of 334, 11 strokes better than second-place Mary Kate Nelson, also of Pine Creek, and 36 strokes ahead of Doherty's Brittany Clark.

“It feels awesome,” said Cabanting of winning the 5A title. “I practiced a lot over the winter because I knew I had a chance and I really wanted to reach that goal.”

Cheyenne Mountain super freshman Kylee Sullivan took the 4A Metro League title with a four-round total of 305. Palmer Ridge's Maggie Geolat and Cheyenne Mountain's Katherine Kemp each came in at 327, with Geolat being awarded second place on a tiebreaker.

Led by Sullivan and Kemp, Cheyenne Mountain took the 4A team title with a five-tournament aggregate score of 1,283, which was 68 strokes better than second-place Palmer Ridge. Lewis-Palmer was third at 1,437.

In 5A, Cabanting and Nelson lifted Pine Creek to the league title with a 1,392. Doherty was second at 1,452 and Fountain-Fort Carson third at 1,676.

Having finished the Metro League season, all teams are now focused on the regionals. The Class 4A regional will be held Wednesday at the Country Club of Colorado and 5A will be Monday at the Colorado Springs Country Club.

At Thursday's event, which was the final of the Metro League's tournaments, Cheyenne Mountain stayed perfect by winning for the fifth time. Palmer Ridge took second and Lewis-Palmer third.

Individually, Kemp took first with an 80 on a day when wind made scoring difficult. Sullivan and Geolat tied for second at 86, while Cabanting was fourth at 89.

Cabanting started playing golf with her father in 2010, when recurring ankle injuries drove her from basketball. She was an outstanding free-throw shooter, and since the precision and ability to repeat a motion that makes a good foul shooter translates well to golf, her father suggested she take up the sport.

A few trips to the driving range led to her first round, which led to that first birdie. There have been plenty since.