Durango saved its best for a theoretical last.
In what could’ve been its final round of high school golf this spring season, the Durango Demons rallied to produce three rounds of 80s at regionals, a first in Durango High School head coach Kirk Rawles’ six years as head coach.
The result: DHS qualified three girls for the CHSAA Class 4A Girls Golf State Championships on May 19-20 at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs.
Durango finished second as a team Tuesday after two days of golf at Adobe Creek National Golf Course in Fruita.
“That really was our goal coming in,” Rawles said. “We had an outside shot of winning regionals.”
And for as good as the Demons were Tuesday, “we gave up 16 strokes over the last three holes,” Rawles said.
Montrose won the regional tournament with 246 strokes, while Durango finished 16 strokes back at 262, meaning Montrose won the region’s automatic bid to the state meet; DHS, however, will be able to compete as a team at state with their triumphant triumvirate.
“We had a shot to win,” Rawles said. “We had them in our sights.”
The Demons’ trifecta – Brooke Kniffin, Natalie Lyon and Reiley Waldo – “all finished as strong as they could’ve,” Rawles said.
Lyon finished fourth overall at 12-over par 84, a career best.
“Just really solid,” Rawles said.
Kniffin and Waldo were two of five golfers to finish on the cut at 17 over 89 in a tie for 10th place.
“We were all sitting there very interested as the scores were coming in,” said Rawles, who marveled at this year’s cut after last year’s state-qualifying number rested at 97.
Courtney Peterson, the Demons’ fourth golfer, finished with a personal-best 113.
“That was a good way for her to finish, too,” Rawles said.
Kiselya Plewe of Dolores shot even-par 72 to win the tournament, six strokes better than Jordan Cherry and Chelsea Peterson of Montrose.
For Waldo, this will be her second consecutive trip to state.
“Overall, I just hit a lot of good shots off the tee,” Waldo said of Tuesday’s regional round.
Any words of wisdom for her teammates at the state meet?
“Just try to relax and have some fun,” she said. “Enjoy the experience. Play how you normally play. The more you try and force it, the more it gets away from you.”
Kniffin, Lyon and Waldo will have two weeks – “plenty of time to figure it out,” Waldo said – until state.
But it’s not time off.
“It’s two weeks of hard work,” Rawles said.
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