The courses and opponents may change, but the results stay the same as the Durango High School girls golf team continues to win.
Durango hasn’t lost a tournament this season, with the latest two wins coming at the GJHS Tiger Open at Bookcliff Country Club on Monday and the Fruita Monument Wildcat Invitational at Adobe Creek National Golf Course on Tuesday.
“This was a great road trip for sure,” Durango girls golf head coach Kirk Rawles said. “Everybody’s getting in the groove, getting miles in, starting to remember how to play, hit shots and start to score now. It was great … as far as where our rankings will end up and where it puts us, as far as trying to get to state. So it was exactly what we needed to go and do.”
On Monday, the Demons beat 12 other teams to win the GJHS Tiger Open with a team score of 31-over par, the combined score of Durango’s top three finishers. Fruita Monument finished second at 52-over par, and Montrose finished third at 64-over par.
Rawles said the greens at Bookcliff were in really good shape. He thought the greens weren’t too fast, but weren’t too slow either. There were some bare spots in the fairways that made for some tough lies. Luckily for the golfers, Bookcliff is closed on Mondays, so that gave the players the whole course. Bookcliff is an old-school course with greens right next to tee boxes for quicker rounds.
Durango had junior Dylan Livingston and senior Jayden Craig tie for the win at 8-over par. Livingston finished with three birdies, seven pars, five bogeys and three double bogeys. Craig had 11 pars, six bogeys and one double bogey.
“Dylan, it’s funny, but she needs to kind of manage her power a little bit better,” Rawles said. “She’ll roast a drive, and then she’ll look to get on a par 5 in two and roast something else, and it might not go straight. It’s awesome to watch her play. As she keeps getting in those situations, hitting some smarter shots and playing some things, then she’ll take a few strokes off here and there.”
Sophomore Kierstin Maycock had her personal best round at 15-over par to finish fifth as the third-best Demon. Rawles described Maycock not as a power hitter, but as someone who hits it down the middle every time.
On Tuesday, the Demons beat nine other teams with a winning score of 28-over par. Fruita Monument was second at 56-over par and Montrose was third at 59-over par. The greens were slower at Adobe, according to Rawles.
Craig won the title at Adobe Creek at 8-over par. She finished with a birdie, nine pars, seven bogeys and a double bogey. Rawles said Craig did a good job adjusting to the slower greens, whereas Livingston struggled a little more, finishing fourth at 11-over par.
Senior Riley Harms had the best round of her career, finishing second at 9-over par. Rawles said Harms does a great job of picking her target and hitting it.
The Demons will host a mix of teams from New Mexico and Colorado in the Durango Hillcrest Invitational at Hillcrest Golf Club at 11 a.m. on Monday.
“I’m excited for my team,” Rawles said. “I’m excited we have such talent and such great personalities on the team. It’s really easy and fun. We’ll keep going with that, because we’re 7-0, and we keep building on it.”
The Durango girls soccer team had been riding a high for over a month, but the Demons lost their first league game in over two years on Saturday afternoon.
Playing at Riverview Elementary School in Durango, the Demons lost 2-1 to Grand Junction to snap an eight-game winning streak. Durango had the lead in the second half, but Grand Junction scored two goals in quick succession late in the game to stun the Demons.
It was the first Grand Junction win over Durango since 2014.
“They’re a quality team, and they got the better of us this time,” Durango girls soccer coach Zac Keeler said. “We sat back on a one-goal lead, and it didn’t pay off for us.”
Durango dropped to 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the 6A/5A Southwestern League. Junior Ellis Campbell scored the lone goal for the Demons, and senior Ryne Neiman finished with five saves in goal.
Grand Junction improved to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League.
Keeler was happy with how his offense performed in the first half, and the Demons struck first around halftime. Durango hit a free kick into the 18-yard box, and it hit a Grand Junction player’s arm, resulting in a penalty kick for the Demons. Campbell finished for the 1-0 lead.
With less than 10 minutes left in the game, the Tigers scored twice. The first goal was off a corner kick, and the second goal, with less than two minutes left, was off a Durango turnover from a short pass deep in Durango territory.
“They may have overloaded us in the middle a bit,” Keeler said. “They got a couple of lucky touches, unlucky touches for us, and were able to just get themselves in good positions to score.”
Keeler is proud of how his team has responded to the loss in practice, with multiple players stepping up to get the group focused and back together.
The Demons stay at home for senior night to play Fruita Monument on Friday at 5 p.m.
Lacrosse on the Front Range can be a different animal, and the Durango girls lacrosse team experienced that with a 17-8 loss at Palmer Ridge on Saturday.
Palmer Ridge’s 17 goals are the most Durango has given up this season. Durango dropped to 7-3 overall with the loss, and Palmer Ridge improved to 4-7 overall with the win.
“Sometimes, you just run into a bigger bear,” Durango girls lacrosse coach Eric Elliot said. “They’re a 5A school, but I was expecting us to be a little more competitive. They’re a good team … they pulled away from us pretty good in the third quarter, and we did much better in the fourth quarter. We were having a hard time getting a draw.”
Palmer Ridge started by going up 3-0, but Durango responded with three goals to tie the game. The teams went back and forth in the second quarter before Palmer Ridge pulled away.
Elliot said the Bears were very sneaky with their cutters, sending one cutter as a decoy and another would fill in behind. The Demons also could’ve been better at protecting the ball, according to Elliot.
Junior Indie Eaton led the Demons with four goals, and senior Taylor Babcock added three. Two of Eaton’s came off free-position shots, and two came off fast breaks. Elliot complimented Babcock with using her strong stick handling to create offense.
Durango has its senior night against Santa Fe Prep on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Durango boys lacrosse team is still trying to snap its losing streak after two home losses to Fruita Monument on Friday and Saturday.
Fruita improved to 5-5 overall and 4-2 in the 4A Mountain League after the 17-4 win over Durango on Friday and the 9-7 win over the Demons on Saturday. Durango dropped to 2-8 overall and 1-7 in the 4A Mountain League after the losses.
On Friday, the Wildcats outscored the Demons 11-0 in the first half to cruise to victory. Saturday’s contest was much closer, with Durango taking a 1-0 lead into the second quarter, and the Demons trailed 4-2 at the half. Fruita increased its lead to 8-5 after three quarters.
The Demons return home to face Montrose on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.