WINNEMUCCA - The last time the Lowry High School boys golf team suffered a loss it was to Churchill County at the 2011 state championships at Hidden Valley Country Club in Reno.
Since then, the Buckaroos have been untouchable and that continued last week as they picked up two more wins. After two weeks off, the Division I-A North returned to action in Elko and Winnemucca.
Lowry won at Ruby View Golf Course in Elko on Wednesday with a team score of 400 to beat host Elko, who was second at 418. Spring Creek was third at 431 and Dayton (472) and Fernley (485) were fourth and fifth, respectively. Churchill County (493), South Tahoe (548) and Sparks (548) rounded out the team scores. Truckee did not have enough players for a team total.
"I thought we played well for the conditions," said LHS head coach Andrew Meyer. "It was cold and miserable all day and the course played tough. A lot of the kids had trouble with the greens. There were a lot of three putts."
The Buckaroos' Cole Erquiaga was the low medalist, with a round of 3-over par 75. The senior was the only player in the field to break 80. The Lowry brother duo of Chris Mendoza and Andy Mendoza each shot 80 as did Elko's Jon Hull.
The low scores continued for the Buckaroos as Ethan Gray carded an 81, Josh Shaver was at 82 and Chris Dendary shot 83. Despite shooting an 83, Dendary's score was not kept in the team total.
In addition, Lowry had six of the top eight scores on the day and currently has the top four golfers in the league by scoring average.
"It was a good day for us," Meyer said. "If Elko was going to beat us, this was probably the tournament they would have done it in. We threw out an 83 and that would have been the top score for eight other schools."
The league made the trip west
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on Thursday to play in Winnemucca. Lowry held court on its home course, shooting a 391 to beat Elko (427) by 36 shots. Spring Creek was third at 433 and Dayton (457) and Fernley (479) were fourth and fifth, respectively. South Tahoe (501) was sixth, Sparks (508) placed seventh and Churchill County (515) was eighth.
"What we shot today was a good score," added the coach. "There were some very tough pin placements. Our course plays tougher than it looks. We had a couple of guys that were not happy with their scores but that is golf."
Gray was the low medalist with a 1-under par 71, which is the best score in the Division I-A North this season. Andy Mendoza was second overall and Elko's Caden Bammesberger was third at 77.
"That was a great round by Ethan," Meyer said. "He has been our most consistent guy all year. He had a couple of double bogeys, but he battled back to shoot what he did. Andy has really stepped up this year and is playing well, which is nice to see."
Chris Mendoza and Dendary each shot 80 and Erquiaga and Shaver both shot rounds of 84 to close out the scoring for the Buckaroos. Once again the Buckaroos were dominant in the individual standings with all six of their golfers in the top 12.
Lowry holds a comfortable lead in the league standings with 45 points. Elko is second with 40 and Spring Creek is third with 35. The three schools have finished 1-2-3 in all five tournaments. The top three teams in the final regular season standings advance to the Division I-A state tournament at Sierra Sage Golf Course in Reno in May. With just two league tournaments left, Lowry, Elko and Spring Creek are all but guaranteed reaching the state tournament.
The Division I-A South will host a regional tournament and its top teams are Boulder City, Faith Lutheran and Pahrump Valley. Boulder City has shot team scores of 376 and 381 in recent tournaments.
"The guys expect a lot out of themselves and are too hard on themselves at times," Meyer said. "I just want them to have fun. If they have a bad hole they need to forget about it and go on to the next hole. "
In what has been a quirky schedule, Lowry is off this week and returns to the course on Thursday, May 2, at Lake Tahoe Golf Course in South Tahoe. The Buckaroos move on to Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on Friday, May 3, for a non-conference meet in Stateline.
"There are still things we need to work on," Meyer said. "I see a lot of things with the short game that can be fixed. "We are going to try to get on Sierra Sage to get a practice round in and we want to get ready for the state tournament."
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