Arcadia stands out at Arizona Fall Preview Golf Invite
August 29, 2020 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365
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Arcadia's Gavin Aurilia didn't have the day Saturday he took delight in on Friday at the annual Arizona Fall Preview Golf Invitational.
The better news - from Aurilia's point of view - is his teammates picked up the slack and showed the Titans are itching to get back to the top of the Divison II boys golf summit.
"I have a couple goals," Aurilia said. "One is to repeat as individual champion, but the other is to win state as a team. That's the most important one. Yesterday (Friday) our three-through-five guys didn't play their best. Today they were much better. I think as a team we scored better this round. That's what you want."
Aurilia's 6-under 65 on Friday allowed him a substantial lead that noone was able to challege on Saturday. The senior finished 7-under for the tournament, managing a 1-under 70 to win medalist honors. He was the only golfer in the 14-team field to best par both rounds.
"Both days were extremely hot," Aurilia said. "Yesterday I hit it way better than today. Today I just managed my way around."
Indeed, three of Arcadia's four scoring players bettered their rounds of Friday on Saturday. Fellow Titans' senior Ethan Klose shot 71-70 for the two days and teammates Parker Bond (76-70) and Jack Peters (76-75) also upped their scores. As a team Arcadia was three strokes better than Friday, much of that due to Aurilia's 6-under total. Klose tied for second with steady Thunderbird senior Daniel Thompson at 141. Thompson was one of two players to shoot two-under 69 on Saturday. The other was Horizon's Paul Kandler, who tied for fourth with Highland's Dallin Delgado at 143.
Arcadia's Gavin Aurilia tees off to begin his back-nine Saturday on the way to winning the Arizona Fall Preview. (AzPreps365 photo)
With Arcadia playing so well on a still hot and muggier day on Saturday, Desert Mountain wasn't up to the challenge of notching the team crown. Arcadia finished with a team score of 573. Desert Mountain, which trailed Arcadia by just four strokes as the second round began, hung on to second. Its second-round 304 made its total 596. Horizon nearly slipped past Desert Mountain finishing at 598. Rounding out the top five teams are fourth-place Highland 606 and fiifth-place Red Mountain 610.
Rounding out the top 10 finishers are Desert Mountain's Jake Webb and Highland's Trevor Grenier(144); Arcadia's Bond (146) and Red Mountain's Carter Wilkes and Prescott's Chance Hill (147).