After finishing second in the state in class 4A last season, the Durango girls golf team started its 2024 season off with a win in Grand Junction on Monday.
The Demons finished first out of 11 teams with a score of 224, which takes the top three golfers’ scores into account on Chipeta Golf Course. Fruita Monument was second with a score of 248 and Rifle was third with a score of 249.
“This was really great for us to get going,” Durango head coach Kirk Rawles said. “You can only hit balls for so long and so you want to try to put it all together.”
Durango has a young team this year as the Demons only return two players from last year’s state team. Junior Ellie White is one of them and she finished first in Grand Junction. White shot a 71 to finish three shots clear of Jadyn Petree from Rifle.
White’s 71 was shot Chipeta’s par 60 course, which consists of six par fours and 12 par threes.
“She's worked really hard on her swing path,” Rawles said about White. “As far as getting the club in more of a consistent position. As far as her ball striking goes, I know she worked on that all summer and into the fall. So it's nice to be able to take swing change like that and then apply it in the round of golf.”
Rawles was also impressed by freshman Dylan Livingston and junior Raimee Brant’s play. Livingston finished fourth overall and second on the Demons with a round of 76. Brant was right behind her with a 77 and fifth place.
Livingston has a lot of athletic ability and can hit the ball long as well as chip and putt well, according to Rawles. He was also proud of Brant’s play which is her best result in her career.
The Demons are back in action in Albuquerque on March 28 at Los Altos Golf Course.
Durango Baseball:
The Demons baseball team finished their tournament in Aztec with a win over Aztec High School 14-5.
Durango improved to 3-0 with the win while Aztec fell to 6-3 overall with the loss.
Junior Jack Englund finished with two hits, two runs and five RBIs. Sophomores Tate Rose and Dylan Burns finished with two hits each.
Both Englund and sophomore Austin Romero split time on the mound. Englund pitched for four innings and had eight strikeouts and only allowed one hit and two runs. Romero pitched three innings and had three strikeouts, allowed four hits and three runs.
The Demons got off to a fast start and didn’t look back. Durango lead 4-1 after the first inning and had three runs in each of the next three innings to take a 13-4 lead after four innings. Durango scored its final run in the seventh inning.
Next up, the Demons face Battle Mountain on Thursday.
Durango Track and Field:
The Demons track and field squad competed in the Farmington Early Bird Invitational to open their season on Saturday. The Durango girls finished second out of 22 teams from New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. The boys won the meet.
“If I named all of our PRs and top 10 finishes today, I'd just about mention the entire team. We had a great day down in Farmington on Saturday,” Demons head coach Johnny Bertrand said. “The PRs and possible state qualifying performances are good but what I was most proud of was our athletes' attitudes. They thanked officials, workers and competitors showing real class as competitors.”
The girls 4x800 meter team of Brynn Aggeler, Evie Morris, Lacy Ruggiero and Sofia Voss were the first Demons of the day to score points. They won the race in a time of 10 minutes, 35.94 seconds. Voss also won the 800 m in 2:23.94 while Ruggiero won the 1600 race in 5:38.33.
The boys 4x800 team got the scoring started for Durango with a first-place finish. The team of AJ Bonanno, Slader Schweitz, Brodie Dorko and Miles Snow finished with a time of 8:51.66. It wasn't the only relay to win for Durango boys that day as they also finished the meet with a first-place finish in the 4x400 meter relay. Jaxon Fancher, Kaleb Roberts, Will Zahradnik and Malakai Baier ran a time of 3:41.58. In the 1600 race, Charlie Dillman secured his first victory of the year with a time of 4:46.03.
Durango also dominated in the field events. Megan Hutchins won the girls shot put with a personal best throw of 34-11, she also got third in the discus behind teammate Violet Mazenko who was second. In the jumping events, Jeanne Campbell soared to a new personal record (PR) in the girls high jump with a jump of 5-2, she also got third in the girls long jump.
The Demons boys showed dominance in the field events with half of the long jumpers in finals being from Durango with Jack Cuthbertson, Mason Miller and Mason Palmer. In the triple jump, freshman Donovan Whitehead jumped 43-2 to win the event. A jump, that if done in Colorado, should qualify him for the state meet.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
