The Durango High School girls golf team continued its strong start to the season with two wins in Montrose. Durango won the Montrose Red Hawk Tournament – Cobble Creek on Monday and the Montrose Red Hawk Tournament – Black Canyon on Tuesday.
“On paper, going up there, we were going to have an opportunity to win both days,” Durango girls golf head coach Kirk Rawles said. “We had our whole platoon of our starters getting up and getting going. With that said, our top four players really showed what we're capable of doing. Across the board, it was outstanding. It’s a good indication of where we're at right now and then what we build off with that.”
On Monday, Durango finished first with a team score of +22-over-par 238 at The Links at Cobble Creek. The team score is the combined score of the top three golfers of each team.
Fruita Monument finished second at +33 over par and Montrose was third at +48 over par.
Rawles said Cobble Creek was still a bit dry, with it being early in the season. It was an easier course for the girls to walk than previous tournaments at Devils Thumb and Piñon Hills, according to Rawles. He also said there’s water on 16 holes but the fairways are pretty wide-open. The greens are a bit sloped but the course is pretty flat.
Sophomore Dylan Livingston led the Demons with a +5-over-par 77 for third place. Makena Thayer from Battle Mountain won the tournament at +3 over par.
It was Livingston’s best-ever round; she finished with two birdies and no double bogeys.
“She tends to favor hitting a cut and is just getting used to that and playing that,” Rawles said about Livingston. “We just talked about that a bunch; hit it down the left side and let it come back into the middle. She can hit it really solid. She teed off most a day, probably with a 5-wood, put it in play and managed her way around the course really well.”
Behind Livingston was senior Ellie White, who shot +7 over par to tie for fourth place. White had three birdies but two double bogeys. Rawles was happy with the number of birdies and pars White had and that she broke 80 despite the double bogeys. He recognizes that it’s still early in the season and the girls are getting used to reading the different greens.
Senior Raimee Brant and junior Jayden Craig tied for 10th with rounds of +10. Brant had three birdies while Craig finished with one.
On Tuesday, the Demons played at Black Canyon Golf Course in Montrose. Durango won that tournament with a team score of +29-over-par 245. Fruita Monument was second at +36 and Montrose was third at +46.
Brant was the top Demon in fourth place at +9-over-par 81, highlighted by three birdies. Thayer from Battle Mountain won with a +1 73.
Livingston and Craig finished tied fifth at +10 over par. White was tied 11th at +14 over par.
The higher scores could be attributed to hole 11 on Black Canyon, according to Rawles, where the top four Demons combined to shoot +8 over par. The 169-yard par 3 has trees on the left and out-of-bounds on the right.
Rawles is encouraged at where the team is at this point of the season. He said if the team scores can stay at or below 240 the Demons will be in great shape.
“We have a really nice balanced attack,” Rawles said. “We can now kind of coach off that. Because we score three of our top players, we can look and manage that; it's great that we have four to pick from. A lot of times, you end up with players that somebody's going to go maybe really low, and they have a couple in the middle, and then somebody might shoot on the higher end. But any one of our four players now can go low. It also takes pressure off any one of the players thinking they always have to shoot low or lower.”
The Demons host the Durango Hillcrest Girls Open at Hillcrest Golf Club on Monday, starting at 11 a.m. Rawles said there will be 11 teams coming to play, mostly from New Mexico.
Girls soccer uses strong second half to beat Montrose
After a 1-1 tie in the first half against Montrose, the Durango girls soccer team came out on fire in the second half. The Demons scored four goals in 13 minutes to pull away from the Red Hawks and win 5-1.
“I was very impressed with their performance.” Durango girls soccer head coach Zac Keeler said. “Before we come into each game ready to put out our game plan and make sure that we limit our opponent’s opportunities.”
Durango improved to 4-3 overall and 3-0 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League. Montrose fell to 4-5-1 overall and 1-4-1 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League.
Junior Josie Phare led the Demons with two goals and an assist and was awarded woman of the match. Sophomore Ellis Campbell finished with two goals and senior Emma Hyder added a goal and an assist. Junior goalkeeper Ryne Neiman had a save for Durango.
The Red Hawks struck first. Ellie Duncan had a nice cross to the far post to Avery Berry, who finished to put Montrose up 1-0 seven minutes into the game.
Phare had the equalizer in the 29th minute to tie the game going into halftime. Keeler said he told his team to keep up what they were doing in the first half. He was happy with the possession they had in the first half and he wanted his team to watch for offside traps from Montrose.
Campbell scored in the 48th and 51st minute to put Durango up 3-1. Keeler said the coaching staff told her to attack the goal in the second half instead of playing down the right line and it paid off. Hyder got in on the scoring in 56th minute and Phare scored the final goal in the 61st minute.
The Demons play at Grand Junction on April 18.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
