Clovis girls take Texico Invitational

FARWELL — A few area golf teams got their seasons started off before taking the spring break, as the Farwell Country Club hosted the Texico Invitational on Wednesday.

The Clovis girls won the three-team field with 381, with all three teams — Hobbs at 392 and Texico at 401 — getting their first team qualifying legs of the season.

A team or individual that hits three qualifying scores, which differ based on the course ratings, will qualify for the state golf meets in May. Qualification is also available through winning the district championship.

Logan Clayton (84) and Ashley Maldonado (95) got their first qualifying legs, and Destany Hodges wasn’t far off at 97. Also golfing for Clovis were Kate Lubera at 105 and Kassidi Jaramillo at 121.

“Two of them are really disappointed, three of them are really pleased,” Clovis girls coach Steve Speck said. “We got a leg, and that’s what counts. They know what they need to work on, and we should get a whole lot better.”

Texico coach Kristen Scanlan was pleased, noting, “It’s good to get a team qualifying leg” so early in the season. Grace McDaniel led Texico with a 94 and placed fourth overall.

Hobbs’ Maddie Rotunno shot an 83 to hold off Clayton for medalist honors.

In the boys field, Hobbs shot a 326 to easily win the four-team field. Clovis was second at 347, well ahead of Clovis Christian (373) and Tucumcari (396).

Outside of Kolt Bennett, who shot 80 to finish second overall, the Wildcats struggled. The silver lining, coach Dale Fullerton said, is there is room for improvement.

“We lost four kids,” Fullerton said. “Kolt is back, and there are two others who are seniors but played JV last year. They’ve got potential to be good before it’s over with. We wanted to play this tournament before spring break. We wanted to get a look, so we’d have a few days to work on whatever we saw.”

Tanner Cox of Hobbs shot 76 to win the invite, while Tyler Lignau of Clovis Christian tied Hobbs’ Bryce Cruz at 81 to finish third.

Taylor Martin finished just outside the top five with an 85 for Clovis. Other competitors for the Wildcats were Chanse Bhakta (87), Christian Casaus (95) and Ryan Rowley (104).

The Eagles got a 94 from Carter Tuene, 99 each from Dawson Tuene and Gage Adair and 100 from Austin Lignau.

Rams tripped up, Texico girls fifth — The bad news for the Portales Rams is a score disqualification cost the team first place at Friday’s Alien 8 and what would have been their first qualifying leg of the season.

The good news is if the Rams continue to golf like they did Friday, qualifying for state is not going to be an issue.

The Rams brought five players to New Mexico Military Institute, but one was Josh Haman, who was playing in his first meet and left off the scorecard by coach Matt Hunton to alleviate any pressure he might have experienced.

That left the Rams with only the minimum four required for a team score, and Talon Payne’s 74 was thrown out due to a miscommunication on a drop.

“It wasn’t anything on purpose, or anything really bad,” Hunton said. “It was just an unfortunate set of events.”

With Payne’s score, the Rams would have posted a 319 and defeated Lovington by two strokes. Instead, Valen Low led Portales with a 78 that put him fifth overall. Nate Cota shot an 80 and Kenevan Bailey 87 for Portales.

In girls play, Texico finished fifth in the field otherwise filled 4A and 5A schools, and got their second qualifying team led with a 410.

Kaytlyn Queener led Texico with a 92 on the day.

Artesia had the top two finishers, with Taysea Powell posting a 69 on the day to finish first. Lovington, however, posted a 344 to beat Artesia by four strokes.