Though the Demons had a tough league championship tournament, head coach Kirk Rawles is confident his young team has time to prepare for another defense of the regional championship.
Durango High School’s boys golf team finished fourth out of five teams at the Southwestern League Championships over two days in Grand Junction at Bookcliff Country Club and Tiara Rado Golf Course.
The Demons opened play Monday at Bookcliff with a team score of 258. DHS then shot 245 at Tiara Rado on Tuesday.
“I’m pretty optimistic,” Rawles said. “The scores are not where we want them yet, but we have all the pieces and need to keep putting them together.”
Both of Durango’s junior varsity players, Robby Grogan and Kobe Szura, shot better scores Monday than any of the five varsity players ahead of them. Lucas Robbins shot 84, while Caleb Newman, Luck Tichi and Ethan Whidden all shot 87. Ryan Genualdi rounded out the DHS team with a 93.
Monday’s medalist was Grand Junction’s Trevor Olkowski, who shot a 5-under-par 66. His brother Canon Olkowski also broke part with a 67. That helped the Tigers to a big lead after one round with a team score under par of 210. Montrose was second with a 225, led by a 72 from Glen Michael Mihavetz.
Mihavetz won Tuesday’s round at Tiara Rado with a 1-under 70. Trevor Olkowski was one stroke back.
Genualdi recovered from his 93 on Monday and shot 79 on Tuesday. Robbins scored an 82, and Ethan Whidden came in with an 84. Tichi added an 87, and Newman rounded out the varsity with an 88.
Durango’s JV didn’t shoot as well Tuesday, as Grogan and Szura both shot 93.
“It was nice to see Robby and Kobe go low Monday, and hopefully they can get back to that,” Rawles said. “(Tichi) played fairly well (Tuesday), but he had 41 putts, so that kind of derailed his round. If we can get that down to 30 it will be drastically different.”
Grand Junction won the two-day league championship by nine strokes ahead of Montrose and Fruita Monument. Durango finished ahead of Grand Junction Central.
The Demons are off until another trip north to Bridges Golf & Country Club next Wednesday. The team has four tournaments before regionals, including two home matches at Hillcrest Golf Club and Dalton Ranch Golf Club in two weeks.
“I told all the guys on the bus that we have the talent to shoot below 80,” Rawles said. “That’s our team goal, get three guys in the house under 80.”
VOLLEYBALL
VOLLEYBALLThe Durango Demons traveled to Utah and came out on the wrong end of a 3-0 game.
Monticello High defeated the Demons 25-20, 25-20 and 25-12 to secure the win and move to 5-0 on the season. Durango dropped to 0-1 to start the year.
DHS senior libero Ivy Kirwan led the team with 16 digs from the back row. Lana Razma, a junior, led the team with 11 kills. Paris Cutler directed the offense with 16 assists, and Brianna Brown added nine assists.
“We definitely had more positive points than negative, we just got outplayed,” DHS assistant coach Maria Creech said. “But I think we got the kinks out with it being our first game.”
The Demons will stay on the road next week to face Pagosa Springs at 6 p.m. Tuesday before a Thursday road match at rival Montezuma-Cortez.
In the season-opener for both teams, the Panthers held off the Bobcats.
Montezuma-Cortez won the final two sets of a hard-fought five-set match Tuesday in Ignacio to secure a 3-2 victory.
“I’m very happy with our performance, especially the freshmen,” IHS head coach Thaddeus Cano said. “It was the first time those freshmen have gone five, and they did really well.”
Ignacio won the first set 25-17 and the third 28-26 but dropped the second 25-19 and the fourth 25-17 to force a decisive fifth. Cortez came out on top 15-8 to secure the game.
IHS senior Kelly Campbell led the team with six kills, four blocks and two aces. Junior Avionne Gomez had a team-high seven digs.
Next for the Bobcats is a road game at Dove Creek to begin the 2A District 3 schedule. That games is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 8.
“We have a lot of ball control to work on, but everything is going to come together very well,” Cano said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
