The Cactus Shadows girls and Notre Dame Prep boys teams took home state titles in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Division II high school golf championships earlier this week. The two-day girls’ tournament took place on Oct. 28-29 at Aguila Golf Course in Laveen and featured the top 12 teams, based on iWanamaker rankings. The boys’ top 12 teams followed, competing in their two-day tournament which began Oct. 30.
Here is a rundown of the D-II tournaments:
Girls D-II
Cactus Shadows won its second D-II girls’ title in the past three seasons, having won in 2022 as well.
With the defending D-II champion Casteel Colts moving up to D-I this year, the door was open for several contenders, including Cactus Shadows, iWanamaker’s No. 1 ranked D-II team, No. 2 Seton Catholic Prep and No. 3 Scottsdale Chaparral. And it was those three that battled in a tight race to the finish over the two-day tournament.
At the end of the first round, Chaparral’s Isabel Helgemoe shared the low score of 4-under par with Zaida Wise of Tucson Sabino and Kaitlyn Helm of St. John Paul II. The Firebirds shot a 309 in the first round and held a nine-stroke advantage over Cactus Shadows. Seton Catholic was right there with the Falcons at 319.
In the second round, Chaparral shot a 320 to fall to a third-place finish. Cactus Shadows and Seton Catholic both finished day two with a 306, resulting in the Falcons getting the one-stroke edge past the Sentinels. Katie Rhude led the team with a 151 total score, followed by Parker Welling, Aveeva Mirchandani and Charlene Lamb all within the top 20 individually.
Helm was the tournament’s individual low score throughout both days, shooting a 5-under on day two for a combined 9-under par. Chaparral’s Cynthia Lang finished 4th with a 142, and Helgemoe was right behind with a 143.
Boys D-II
The opening round’s top eight individual scorers were occupied by three teams: Notre Dame Prep, Tucson Catalina Foothills and Chaparral. The Saints had four golfers in that group, and the Falcons and Firebirds each had two.
The Notre Dame duo of Caden Petersen and Landon Ashcraft both shot a low score of 5-under in the first round and the Saints held a 12-stroke advantage heading into day two. Chaparral followed Notre Dame in second place with its score of 283, and Catalina Foothills and Horizon were knotted at 289 at the end of the first day.
Ashcraft matched his day one performance with another 5-under in round two and a 10-under par final score, the lowest individual score of the tournament. He led Notre Dame to its final score of 546 to win this year’s D-II tournament. The Saints scored lowest in both days of the tournament and finished 22 strokes ahead of runner-up Catalina Foothills.
Zachary Schaefer and Chase Cesarek of Catalina Foothills finished second and fourth among individuals with their final scores of 136 and 137, respectively. Chaparral’s Aleksei Panek tied Schaefer for second place as the Firebirds took home bronze with their final count of 581.
Up next
The girls’ Division I tournament tees off on Monday, Nov. 4 at Aguila Golf Course in Laveen Village. The boys begin right after the girls’ two-day tournament on Nov. 6 and conclude the next day. Xavier is heading into the tournament as the No. 1 ranked team for the girls’ side, and Brophy is No. 1 among the boys.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cactus Shadows, Notre Dame win D-II high school golf championships
