The Durango High School boys golf team stepped up to the tee box Tuesday. With the first swing of a club, the 2016-17 high school sports season was underway.
The Demons traveled to play in the Montrose Invitational at Black Canyon Golf Course. Grand Junction won the tournament with a team score of 213, while Montrose was second at 216. Fruita Monument was third with 229, and Delta and Montezuma-Cortez tied four fourth at 242. One stroke behind them in sixth was Durango’s varsity, which finished ahead of Gunnison (246), Cedaredge (252), Grand Junction Central (277) and Telluride (281).
Grand Junction was led by a 3-under-par 67 from Trevor Olkowski. Glen Michael Mihavetz of Montrose also broke par with a 69.
Durango’s low round was scored by Ryan Geunaldi, who shot 79. Caleb Newman shot 81, Robby Grogan scored 83, and Kobe Szura shot an 88 to produce Durango’s varsity team score. Lucas Robbins also shot 90 on the varsity side.
Durango’s junior varsity was only three strokes behind the varsity team. Ethan Whidden shot an 81, and Luke Tichi shot 82. A pair of 83s came from Kyle Kirkpatrick and Steven Wyman. Luke Napier shot an 88.
“I’m really encouraged by the play of the underclassmen,” DHS head coach Kirk Rawles said. “We took two freshmen up there for their first tournaments, so I thought they did really well. For Ryan, it was his first round in the 70s, so we were real excited for him.”
Kirkpatrick and Wyman, two seniors, scored their lowest career rounds. Rawles said he can tell some guys have worked hard on their game over the summer.
DHS will play two tournaments next week at Pagosa Springs Golf Club and at Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez.
“I’ll shuffle the deck a little bit after seeing how practice goes the next few days,” Rawles said. “As always, whoever shoots the lowest gets to play. In golf, it’s pretty easy.”
DHS is three three-time defending regional champion but lost the core of those teams to graduation. Three of those boys are now playing in college.
This year, Grand Junction and Montrose have plenty of depth. While Grand Junction is in Class 5A, Montrose poses a stiff threat to the Demons in Class 4A.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
