The play of Hailey Schalk of Erie and Mary Weinstein of Highlands Ranch in 2017 continues to yield awards for the two Coloradans.
The Sportswomen of Colorado announced its annual award winners earlier this month, and Schalk (high school) and Weinstein (college) earned the honors for golf. It will be the second straight year Weinstein has landed a Sportswomen award. She and Schalk will be among 57 winners in an array of sports who will be honored at the 44th annual awards celebration, set for March 11 at the Denver Marriott Tech Center.
Schalk had a stellar year as a 15-year-old last in 2017. The Holy Family golfer was the first freshman to win a girls state high school individual title since 2002 when she captured the 3A championship. She became the first Coloradan — female or male — to claim victory at the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior. In addition, she won both of the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado majors in which she competed — the Colorado Junior PGA Championship and the JGAC Tour Championship — giving her three JGAC major wins overall for her junior career.
Not surprisingly, those performances earned Schalk 2017 JGAC Girls Player of the Year honors. She later was named a “Future Famer” honoree by the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
Weinstein was the CWGA’s Player of the Year for 2017 as Jennifer Kupcho earned the association’s highest honor, the President’s Award.
Weinstein, who transferred to the University of Denver in July after a season at Regis University, didn’t compete in a lot of tournaments last summer, but she was a factor most of the time when she did tee it up.
Weinstein earned a spot in her first U.S. Women’s Amateur, becoming the first Colorado resident since 2015 to qualify in the state for the national tournament. In CWGA championships, she finished fourth in the Stroke Play and made the semifinals at the Match Play. She also made the cut and placed 35th in the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open, finishing fourth among amateurs.
After being named the women’s Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Year and placing 22nd in the Women’s NCAA Division II Championship Finals last spring, Weinstein made the transition to D-I at DU. The sophomore helped the Pioneers win two team titles in 11 days in the fall and posted three top-15 showings individually. And on Wednesday, Weinstein was named the Summit League Women’s Golfer of the Week.
On March 11, six athletes will be inducted into the Sportswomen of Colorado Hall of Fame by earning an award in the same category three times. Kupcho was inducted last year.
The new Sportswomen Hall of Famers will be Maya Evans (track & field), Lindsey Horan (soccer), Samantha Martinelli (tennis), Michaela Onyenwere (basketball), Carson Saaybe (shooting-air pistol) and Bridget Sutter (lacrosse).
The Sportswoman of the Year will be announced at the banquet on March 11.
