Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
With golf season in ... well, full swing ... local teams were in action Monday, as Portales’ boys and Texico’s girls competed in the Eddy County Challenge at Artesia country club’s par-72 course.
Portales finished third at 336, behind Lovington (303) and Artesia (333). Texico had 399, placing fourth behind Lovington (346), Artesia (355) and Alamogordo (376).
Texico’s top four were: Kaytlyn Queener (98), Macey Tharp (99), Emily Dela Rosa and Libby Douma (101 each).
Talon Payne led Portales with a 76 and finished tied for fifth individually with Lovington’s Ashton Aranda. They came in behind Lovington’s Tres Arreola (72), Carlsbad’s Eli House and Roswell’s Payton Jones (73 each), and Lovington’s Rial Williams (74). Payne and Aranda edged Artesia’s Canon Carter by two strokes.
Rounding out Portales’ top four were: Nate Cota (82), Valen Low (88) and Kenevan Bailey (90).
“We started slow today,” Rams head coach Matt Hunton said. “Talon and Nate really did a good job of picking it up after the slow start and finished with some pretty good scores. Valen Low, he got off to kind of a rough start and was shaky all day. It was just one of those days he couldn’t come around and get it going.”
So far, Hunton thinks the Rams are playing solid overall this season.
“I think we’re on track for where I thought we’d be,” he said. “We still need some improvement, but it’s not a bad start.”
Finishing behind Portales were: Carlsbad (346), Alamogordo (348), Goddard (353) and Dexter (402).
Placing behind Texico was Carlsbad (406).