Scores have been tallied after the first day of the girls golf state tournament.
Durango High School golfers Brooke Kniffin, Natalie Lyon and Reiley Waldo combined to shoot 292 on Monday during the first day of the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A Girls Golf State Championship at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs.
Montrose leads the tournament at 267, Cheyenne Mountain is second at 270, and Valor Christian is third at 271. The Demons sit in seventh place behind Broomfield, which shot 281.
“We haven’t played our best yet. But, if you look at the lead, if our girls hit their stroke averages from this year, we would be leading state,” DHS head coach Kirk Rawles said. “All the scores were pretty high. I reminded the girls we can be competitive out there.”
Waldo, a junior, had the team’s low round of the day, shooting a 15-over-par 87. That score has her sitting in 11th place.
She didn’t have a birdie all day, carding a 44 on the front-nine and 43 on the back.
“It is exciting, and I am glad I moved up that far,” Waldo said after moving up the leaderboard from 22nd to 11th after the late groups came in. “I am just kind of shooting to stay in the top-15 range (Tuesday), and that is doable for me. I would be happy to be in the 80s again.”
Waldo, who isn’t the longest hitter out of the tee box, said the key Tuesday will be hitting the ball straight and avoiding trouble.
“The course isn’t super difficult if you can keep it straight,” said Waldo, daughter of Allisa and Kurt Waldo. “A couple of them are tough reaches for me, but a lot of girls in the field had trouble getting to the greens in regulation.”
Lyon signed for a 29-over 101, and Kniffin posted a 32-over 104. Lyon is in 54th place, and Kniffin is in a five-way tie for 58th.
“Both Brooke and Natalie struggled out there,” Rawles said. “They couldn’t get anything going. They would have a blowup hole or get in a bad spot, but then they would have a few good holes before they did the same again.”
The best round of the day was scored by Jefferson Academy’s Jennifer Kupcho, who shot an even-par 72. She is nine-strokes clear of second place Andrea Ballou of Valor Christian and Mariah Ehrman of Jefferson Academy.
With Kupcho the only player breaking 80 on Monday, Rawles believes a solid round by Waldo could see her rocket up the leaderboard.
“We are aiming for higher than top 10. With only one girl out there beating 80 (Monday), six strokes is nothing on this course,” Rawles said.
Dolores’ Kiselya Plewe struggled Monday morning, shooting 18-over 90 to put her in 30th place. She sits in a nine-way tied for 22nd place in is her first competitive round since shooting even-par at the regional championship in Fruita.
Sitting just 16 strokes out of fifth place, Rawles hopes his team can rally for a top-five finish on the final day Tuesday.
“We will tee it up and give it our best shot,” he said. “We’ve got our sights set on fifth right now.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
