The boys golf season was filled with simply elite play in the Aurora area and it was capped with a Class 5A state championship from Cherokee Trail, which finally got over the hump after runner-up finishes in each of the previous two seasons.
The 2025 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Golf Team — which has six members for the second straight season based on performance at the 5A state tournament — includes three members of the title-winning Cougars in seniors Brayden Forte and Dalton Sisneros and freshman Jeffrey Chen along with senior Brady Davis and Will Farber of Regis Jesuit and senior Gregory White of Eaglecrest.
Regis Jesuit is tied for the all-time Colorado state lead with nine state championships — the last coming in 2017 — but no other Aurora area program had ever won a team state championship until coach Ryan Stevens’ Cherokee Trail did it this season. In the regular season, the Cougars had a tournament in which they shot 20-under-par as a team, won every tournament they played and captured the Centennial League championship, making them a favorite for the 5A state tournament at Bookcliff Country Club in Grand Junction.
An abnormally slow opening round put the Cougars in the midst of a large bunch of teams in title contention going into the final day, but they closed in style with a final round of 10-under. That wasn’t enough to keep Cherokee Trail out of a playoff, but it prevailed over Denver East in a team playoff to claim the championship.
It took every shot for the Cougars to win, but none were bigger than the one turned in by Forte on the final hole of regulation. Down by a stroke in the team standings, Forte (the state’s top golfer during the regular season in stroke average) dropped his second shot on the par-5 Hole No. 18 to within about two feet from the hole and sank the putt for an eagle.
Forte shot a 7-under 64 in the final round and finished third on the individual 5A leaderboard behind Fairview’s dynamic duo of Miles Kuhl and Ash Edwards. It was his second top-three career finish after he tied with Kuhl for second at the 2023 state tournament.
Forte — a four-time state qualifier, four-time member of the All-Aurora first team and the 2025 Centennial League individual medalist — signed with San Diego State.
Also Division I-bound is Sisneros, who signed with Radford University as the capper to his outstanding final varsity season. He shot no worse than 73 in any of the five Centennial League tournaments — including three rounds in the 60s — and finished as the league runner-up.
At his third career state tournament, Sisneros rebounded from a 3-over 74 in the opening round with a blistering 66 in the final round that was crucial in the Cougars’ push into title contention. That put him eighth for a second straight top-10 finish after he tied for third in 2024.
Sisneros got to put the capper on the state championship victory with a putt in the team playoff that swirled around the cup and fell. He and Forte were both members of three straight placing teams with Cherokee Trail, as it tied for second in 2023 and then finished as the clear runner-up to Cherry Creek in 2024.
Joining Forte and Sisneros with clutch putts in the team playoff was Chen, the younger brother of Anthony Chen, who contributed to the runner-up finishes in the past two seasons. With supreme depth, Cherokee Trail’s battle for the third and fourth spots throughout the season (with state qualification determined by season results as regionals were done away with) was fierce and ultimately went to Jeffrey Chen and senior Braydon O’Neill.
Jeffrey Chen joined his older brother, Forte and Sisneros as All-Centennial League first team performers during the regular season and he was steady at the state tournament with rounds of 74 and 73 to provide the third score needed to bring home the state title.
Chen made a birdie on Hole No. 17 at the end of the second round that was key for his team and he drained a lengthy putt on the playoff hole that gave his team significant momentum.
Individually, White had another fantastic season as a senior with Eaglecrest and earned a spot on the All-Aurora team for the fourth time in as many seasons.
White won the Centennial League opening tournament at Meadow Hills and finished in the 60s in three of the five league tournaments on his way to all-league first team accolades. White’s state tournament debut as a freshman in 2022 — when he was part of a qualifying Eaglecrest team that also included his older brother, Andrew — saw him place eighth and he bookended his career with another top-10 finish as he tied for ninth.
White made bogey on his final two holes or he could have been in the top five, but rounds of 71 and 70 put him in a five-way tie for ninth. Coincidentally, he finished one stroke behind Sisneros, his future teammate at Radford after Sisneros connected him with the Highlanders’ coach.
Regis Jesuit finished 11th in the team standings with the help of the performances of Farber and Davis, who finished tied for 16th and 24th, respectively.
Farber played previously at Arapahoe, but had a big impact in his first season with coach Craig Rogers’ Raiders. He was very competitive during the Continental League season, during which he tied for second at the tournament at Broken Tee G.C. and was third at King’s Deer G.C. At the state tournament, Farber made four birdies in the opening round of the state tournament on his way to a one-under par 70 that put him in a tie for sixth place.
While a large number of players improved in the second round, Farber again made four birdies (but also had six bogeys) during a round of 73 that gave him a two-day total of 143.
Davis had been a longtime contributor to the Regis Jesuit program, but made it to state for the first time as a senior. He opened with a 77 and approached the final round with a positive attitude and looked to finish strong.
Davis did just that with a six-birdie performance that resulted in a 1-under 70 and put him in a tie for 24th in the final leaderboard. After a triple bogey on the par-3 Hole No. 5, he bounced back with consecutive pars and birdied Nos. 8 and 9.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
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