"I was never on a state championship team when I was in high school," said LHS head coach Andrew Meyer. "To do it as a coach is special. In my first year, the significance of winning really has not sunk in quite yet. The boys had this goal from the first day of practice and anything short of that would have been disappointing for them. I just wanted them to have fun."
The Buckaroos shot 398 on May 14 at Boulder Creek Golf Club (Desert Hawk and Eldorado nines) and 408 on May 15 in windy conditions at Boulder City Municipal Golf Course to finish with an 806.
"Our main goal going into the first day was to go out and give them hell and throw out a low number and break 400," Meyer said. "We thought that would give us a cushion and we did that. Elko was not too far behind and they really stepped up the first day and gave us a run for our money.
"To win a state championship in my first year is pretty sweet; it doesn't get much better than that."
It is the 11th state championship in boys golf for Lowry, which is a Nevada state record. The next closest is six by Elko, who finished second this year with an 838.
Southern 3A champion Boulder City was third at 866 and Spring Creek was a distant fourth at 897.
"Everyone said the second day would be easier, but it was not that much easier," added the coach. "The winds were up to 40 mph and we have kids that like to hit the ball high. I saw some extreme mental athletes out there that really had to grind it out."
Virgin Valley's Ryan Baeza was the individual champion with a two-day score of 143. Boulder City's Luke Logan was second at 154.
Lowry claimed four of the top eight individual spots, as Chris Mendoza was fourth and Cole Erquiaga fifth, with scores of 159 and 160, respectively. Mendoza shot a 78 on the second day, which was second best for that round.
"Chris has just been solid all year and is mentally the same all the time," Meyer said. "His score on the second day was huge. Cole shot a high score on the first nine on the second day and knew he had to go low on the back nine and did."
Ethan Gray (161) finished seventh and Chris Dendary (164) was eighth. Rounding out the scores for the Buckaroos was Jacob Jakich at 168 and Josh Shaver (169).
"Chris had to grind it out as well," Meyer said. "Winning a state championship in basketball helped him calm the nerves. You could see everyone on the first day was nervous. It was a complete team effort. We had two solid rounds from Ethan and Josh came through with a 78 on day one. Josh struggled on the second day but Jacob comes in with an 84 which was big for us.
"This is a kind of team that has each other's backs. We didn't see any other teams that had that solid six together. Having that strong fifth or sixth guy is big."
All six golfers for Lowry are underclassmen and return next season under the new Division IA realignment. It's the Buckaroos' second state title in three years, including a 2010 win in Mesquite. They were the state runner-up in 2009 to Faith Lutheran and 2011 to Churchill County.
"This is a solid crew and they are all back," Meyer said. "The other coaches did not like that too much. Just being down there made me understand what kind of a good coaching crew we have up here. We all help each other out. We have a great golf community up here and great support from the golf course. Elko and Spring Creek may be our rivals, but we help each other out. The rivalry is there with the kids, which is nice."
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