STATE CHAMPS
Lady Horsemen bring home golf little
Your services were not required this year, Mother Nature; the St. Michael’s Lady Horsemen did it without your assistance this time. Twelve months removed from a cold front that brought rain, wind and overall nasty weather to the Four Corners area during the 2017 State Golf Tournament — weather that halted the event after just one round — this week’s Class 1A-4A tournament was played in perfect conditions at The Canyon Club.
The abbreviated slate last year helped the St. Michael’s girls and star player Carisa Padilla win state championships after building first-round leads. This time, the Lady Horsemen needed all 48 hours to vanquish the field.
Trailing Hope Christian by 10 strokes after Monday’s opening round, St. Michael’s rallied past the Lady Huskies on the back nine of Tuesday’s final round to claim consecutive titles for the first time since winning three straight from 2004-06.
Padilla and teammate Miquela Martinez finished in the top four for the second straight year; Padilla was a distant to Ruidoso’s Alexandra Michelena, while Martinez was fourth.
On the boys side, Taos junior Josh Fambro got off to a hot start and did more than enough when it mattered most to win the individual title by four strokes. He carded a 2-over 74 on Tuesday, blistering the course with a subpar 1-under on the back nine. It ended with a 15-foot birdie putt on 18. “I actually think I was more stressed out after I got done playing than when was out on the course,” Fambro said.
That’s because he was nearly two hours in front of the group that included Hope’s Jacob Lucero, one of the two players who shared the lead after Monday. The other was Cottonwood Classical Prep’s Alexander Moores, who played in Fambro’s foursome Tuesday but faded on the back nine just as Fambro was heating up.
Lucero hit the turn with six bogeys and a birdie, leaving him two back. He shot even par on the back but never mounted a serious charge. Of course, Fambro knew nothing of it. With tournament officials using a new realLanse
time scoring system available to anyone with cell service, he resisted the urge to check his phone and take a peek.
“You hear mumblings from the crowd buy it’s hard to tell if people are lying or if it’s even accurate,” he said. “I just try not to pay any attention to it and just play my round.”
The only player in the field decked out in slacks — “I always wanted to be a golfer and everyone on TV always wears pants,” he said — he waited Lucero out by going straight from the 18th green to the driving range to stay loose.
As soon as Lucero finished, word filtered through the crowd that the lead was safe. Lucero made it official moments later when he walked over to Fambro just off the 18th green and offered his congratulations.
The first person Fambro turned to after receiving his championship medal was his father, Jim. The two had a long embrace as Jim Fambro whispered a few words as everyone around them cheered.
“I’ve coached wrestling for 13 years and had many, many champions come along in that time, but nothing compares to the feeling of this,” Jim Fambro said. “This is something really special.”
Robertson’s boys finished third in the team standings, led by Noah Gonzalez’s fifth-place finish. The Cardinals were 15 shots behind state champion Portales, which beat Hope by a single shot. The Rams finished with a twoday cumulative total of 692.
Lucero drained a short par putt on the 18th to put the pressure on, but Portales’ Austin Davis carded a bogey to seal the win — which no one knew about until the official scorekeeper scribbled each team’s total on the handwritten scoreboard near the pro shop.
That kind of drama was played out again when the girls finally finished more than 45 minutes after the boys. That final group that included Padilla was completely unaware that St. Michael’s had just nailed down the title.
“I think the idea is not to say anything,” said St. Michael’s head coach Robin Martinez, now the architect of all four Lady Horsemen team titles. “I was trying to do the math but I wasn’t really sure where we were.”
Literally the last team still lingering around the clubhouse after the day was done, the Lady Horsemen took turns posing for photos with friends, family and teammates. Some wrapped the championship banner around their shoulders, others went arm-in-arm with friends and family.
“We didn’t get the weather this year, but that’s a good thing,” Martinez said.
TOURNAMENT NOTES
Toppers dominate: The Los Alamos boys built an insurmountable lead after Monday’s opening round, then closed out the rest of the field to make it official Tuesday by rolling to a 19-stroke victory in the Class 5A state tournament in Hobbs.
The Hilltoppers were remarkably consistent over the two days, carding a cumulative 314 on Monday and 315 on Tuesday. Three players finished in the top 11, led by Henry Poston’s 3-over 147. He finished second overall, one stroke back of Aidan Thomas of St. Pius. Thomas was one of only two players to break par Tuesday with a 4-under 68 in the second round.
Sean Rau tied for ninth for Los Alamos while Davis Johnson was tied for 11th. Jacob Benelli was 18th. None of them shot worse than 84 on either day, giving the four-man lineup the kind of consistent success required to keep the rest of the field at a safe distance.
The Los Alamos girls finished fifth, 78 shots behind state champion St. Pius.
Controversy: The 6A tournament in Farmington ended with some controversy. Cleveland’s boys finished second overall, just two shots behind Piedra Vista.
The Storm’s Enrique Armijo, who was in contention for a medal after a 2-over 74 on Monday, was disqualified for signing the wrong scorecard after Tuesday’s round.
More 1A-4A: St. Michael’s had one entrant on the boys side. Cameron Gonzales had a twoday total of 28-over 172 to finish in a tie for 11th, 20 shots behind Fambro.