PREP GOLF: Storm dominates in Roswell meet

ROSWELL — When it comes to Class 6A golf this year, it may be a case of there’s Rio Rancho Cleveland and then everybody else.

That’s the way it looked, anyway, in Tuesday’s Coyote Classic, hosted by Roswell High at Spring River Golf Course. The Storm ran away with both team titles, and the Cleveland girls may have been more impressive than the boys.

Cleveland’s girls posted a team score of 326, while Roswell Goddard was second at 361, edging Clovis High by three shots. Meantime, the Storm finished at 305 on the boys side, with the next four separated by two strokes, and comfortably back at that — Hobbs 325, Carlsbad and Rio Rancho 326 and the Wildcats at 327.

Cleveland’s Jacque Galloway shot the day’s best score for boys or girls, a two-under 69. She beat teammate Elixiss Gutierrez by eight shots for medalist honors.

The Lady Wildcats’ Raquel Anaya and Logan Clayton shared fourth place with Portales junior Janae Hale, all at 84. Texico’s girls were sixth in the eight-team field at 403, while PHS came in seventh at 434.

Lady Cats coach Steve Speck said it was good to see the Storm.

“Cleveland just took off and left us,” he said, referring to the rest of the field. “It was a good match between us and Goddard. The competition makes us better.”

Senior Hannah Rucker led Texico with a round of 95, followed by junior Kaylee Muse at 97.

For the boys, Clovis’ scores were all bunched, but the Wildcats simply couldn’t break 80. Sophomore Kolt Bennett led the Cats at 41-39 — 80, earning his fifth leg towards state competition, while the other four CHS players shot either 82 or 83.

“They had some good holes, but they had some big scores on holes that hurt us,” CHS interim coach Dale Fullerton said. “The (playing) conditions were good. We just didn’t play that well.”

Cleveland’s Alejandro Armijo was the medalist at 72, and the Storm posted four of the day’s top seven scores.

Both Clovis teams and the PHS girls are slated to play in Thursday’s Lovington Invite. Meantime, Clovis and Portales boys and girls and the Texico girls return to Tuesday’s site again for the Spring River Classic next Monday.

PHS boys win — At Ruidoso, senior Thomas Tulk was the No. 2 medalist and Portales’ boys cruised to the team title in the two-day Leroy Gooch Invitational.

The Rams finished with a two-day team total of 640 to finish 31 shots ahead of the host Warriors. Monday’s round was played at Alto Country Club, with Tuesday’s play at the Links at Sierra Blanca.

“Overall, we played really well,” PHS coach Matt Hunton said. “We’ve still got to work on closing (a round). Everybody struggled the last six holes or so both today and yesterday.”

Tulk shot 35-38 — 73, one over par, to finish the tourney at 151, two shots behind Centennial’s Nolan Gillihan. Senior Andrew Underbrink was next at 78-82 — 160.