The Pahrump Valley girls golf team took second place in the 3A Nevada State Championships that were held in Mesquite this week.
This is the third consecutive runner-up finish for the Trojans’ girls golf team. They finished 42 strokes behind the state champions from Douglas High School.
“We’ve been state runner-ups three of the last four years,” Pahrump Valley head coach Bob Hopkins said. “It was a good year. I thought we could win it, but Douglas played better than us.”
The tournament was split up into two days, with nine holes being played on day 1e and a full 18 holes being played on day 2. Day 1 of the tournament took place on the Canyons Course of the Oasis Golf Club. Day 2 of the tournament took place on the course at the Palms Golf Club, which sits right on the Nevada and Arizona border.
After the first day of the tournament, the Trojans were in second place, trailing Douglas by just 12 strokes. Sophomore Emily Gent tied for the fifth best score of the round with a +11 after nine holes.
On the second day, Pahrump Valley freshman Alana Zuniga led the way for the team. She finished with a team-low score of +21, which was the fifth best score of the day for the tournament. Zuniga finished with a score of +36, for a total of 142 shots over the two-day event. This score was good enough for a ninth place finish based on individual scores.
The top individual score of the tournament was Ryan Flynn from Truckee High School with a score of +7. The Trojans had three of their six players finish with scores inside the top 15: Zuniga (+36), Shania Hopkins (+38) and Emily Gent (+42).
The remaining three players on the team all finished inside of the top 25 individual scores. Sherrie Monjaras finished tied for 20th place with a score of +55, while Toni Cross-Smith finished in 24th with a score of +59 and Alyssa Holmes finished in 25th with a score of +60.
“We’ll have three of the six kids back,” Hopkins said. “Hopefully we can make a run for it again next year. Douglas is real young, so it’ll be a battle for us.”
Hopkins is hoping to replace the exiting seniors with new talent and would like for his players to continue practicing their short game during the offseason. Hopkins is also hoping to start the Pahrump Valley Youth Golf Founders Club back up to get younger kids interested in playing.
Coach Hopkins would like to give a special thank you to all of the parents and fans who came out to the events throughout the season to show their support for the team.
Contact Sports Editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com