Ironwood Ridge wins 3rd consecutive Div. II girls golf title
The girls golf rivalry between No. 1 Oro Valley Ironwood Ridge and No. 2 Cave Creek Cactus Shadows continued into this year’s AIA Division II state tournament.
Last year, Ironwood Ridge won its second consecutive championship by 13 strokes. The previous three years, Cactus Shadows won. Despite their efforts to take the title back, the Falcons were unable to prevent Ironwood Ridge from topping off a three-peat in the two-day tournament that concluded on Tuesday at the Omni Tucson National golf course.
“They are on a run right now and Doug (Kautz, Ironwood Ridge head coach) knows it, that every now and then you just get lucky and just have this core group of girls and they all just latch onto each other,” Cactus Shadows coach Mark O’Bryan said.
Cactus Shadows lost eight seniors from last years No. 2 team and were expecting this year to be dedicated to rebuilding. Instead, the younger players stepped up, wanting more opportunities to compete, which lead to higher competition in practices.
“My team is different this year because last year we pretty much had really good six players. This year I have nine players that are pretty interchangeable,” O’Bryan said. “They have been competing with each other every day in practice and I think that is our biggest asset.”
With a young team coach O’Bryan is hopeful for the potential of the team in the next couple of years. Despite trailing Ironwood Ridge by five strokes the first day, Cactus Shadow golfers Paige Hammarstrom (68) and Chloe Tarkany (70, tied with Salpointe Catholic’s Mackenzie McCree) as the the top two players on the leaderboard.
“Our goal throughout the season has just been to improve and prepare for state but do all that while having fun,” Tarkany said. For her part, Hammarstrom said that going into state she was hoping to “perform well as a team.”
Cactus Shadows shot identical 295 both days of the tournament for a total of 590, just two strokes shy of Salpointe Catholic, which finished in second. Dominating yet again, Ironwood Ridge shot Tuesday’s best score of 283 for a total of 573 that was 15 strokes better than Salpointe Catholic.
Goodyear Millennium, which was focused on “staying stroke for stroke” with their opponents, shot 627 and placed fourth in the tournament, up from last year’s eighth-place finish.
“Every year we just need to get closer to the top teams and then we will be there,” Millennium coach Vicki Turrell said.
Waddell Canyon View finished fifth (634), two strokes ahead of Queen Creek Casteel.
McRee finished first overall (138), two shots ahead of Canyon View’s Makenzie Cooper and Cienega’s Marley Moncada.