Douglas leads Skyhawks, Gators at state; Gaels lag

Three teams were bunched at the top of the leaderboard after the first day of the Class 4A girls state golf tournament, but four-time defending champ Bishop Gorman wasn't among them.

Northern Region champion Douglas shot 463 to lead Monday at Canyon Gate Country Club, but Silverado (469) and Green Valley (473) clearly remain within striking distance.

"We could have done some damage today," Green Valley coach Greg Murphy said. "But the beauty of it is, we're still in it. We've still got a shot."

Today's final round tees off at 11 a.m.

Scores were high across the board Monday, with only two girls breaking 80 and nearly as many players shooting over 100 as under it. Coronado's Bethany Glassford and Gorman's Jennifer Hahn tied for the lead at 79.

Silverado's Tameka Demps (83) and Stephanie Whatley (85) were among the top 10.

"Nobody excelled to their potential, but they put up some solid first-round scores," Silverado coach Tari Hawks said.

Brittany Rizzetto (92) also had a solid first round, but the Skyhawks were the only one of the top three teams to carry a pair of triple-digit scores.

Green Valley carried Kelly Lee's 107, though she rebounded nicely with a 43 on the back nine after a 64 on the front.

Evi Sundquist shot 87 to lead the Gators, and Brittany Radke, Stephanie Kirk and Jordan Sala each shot 93.

"The girls were pretty anxious and really wanted to get things started," Murphy said. "Now we know where we're at, and we've just got to relax and go play. We know we can play a lot better than we have."

Gorman's top three matched any other team, with Hahn, Nichole Corpus-Massucci (85) and Nicolette Rivera (89) each breaking 90, but the Gaels' next-best score was 124, and they were 42 shots out of first.

Glassford was the opening-round leader last year, eventually finishing second to Gorman's In-Ah Park.

Centennial's Alex Borcherts and Beth Burrus each shot 82 on Monday to stay in the individual title hunt. Burrus was third and Borcherts fourth at last year's tournament.

• CLASS 3A -- Ashley Keller shot 8-over-par 80 as Pahrump Valley took a 25-shot first-round lead in the Class 3A girls state tournament at Palm Valley.

The Trojans shot 473 to lead second-place Virgin Valley. Incline's Katelyn Wright was the individual leader at 79.

Contact Prep Sports Editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4587.