Xavier collected the 40th state championship in program history on Tuesday after the Gators pulled away from Casteel to beat the Colts by 12 strokes to claim the Division I championship held at the Aguila Golf Course in Laveen. Xavier and Casteel were tied at 292 after the first round on Monday but championship experience helped the Gators down the stretch.

40 state championships since 1980 leaves very little room for error from other programs and only Horizon (twice), Hamilton (twice), Pinnacle and Liberty have been able to do it and the Gators took second place in each of those setbacks with the last two losses in 2021 and 2022 coming by only seven strokes combined. Simply, if a team is going to beat the Gators, all four scoring golfers will have to play near perfect over 36 holes because that’s what Xavier does.

Former ASU standout Tui Selvaratnam is the head coach of record for the last eight Xavier championships and Sr. Lynn Winsor has the first 32 to her name. How impressive is that? Cactus Shadows is next on the list with nine state championships and Selvaratnam is near that total with her eight championships. These are numbers that will never be broken.

Casteel. (Doug Honkamp)

 

Xavier standout Alexis Lamadrid (9-under 135: 68-67) picked up her second individual championship in a row after the junior held on to beat Casteel senior Julia Herzberg (137: 66-71) by two strokes. Lamadrid made things interesting by collecting a bogey on her final hole but Herzberg was too far back despite birdies on the 15th and 17th. Liberty sophomore Natalia Fox (143: 74-69) took third and those three were the only under-par golfers at the tournament.

Xavier senior Isabella Piazza (145: 73-72) took fourth and Xavier freshman Addison Taylor (146: 75-71) took eighth to earn individual medals. Only six seniors placed in the top 10.

Lamadrid can win three in a row, joining former Gator standout Ashley Menne, who won three in a row from 2016-19 and former Gator standout Heather Farr, who won three from 1979-81. Grace Park won a championship with Xavier in 1994 and she then won two more for Horizon for her three.

L-R: Alexis Lamadrid, Julia Herzberg, Natalia Fox, Ashley Malko, Taylor Underhill, Peyton Decosta, Isabella Piazza, Addison Taylor, Aubrey Pizzillo and Hayden Nguyen. (Doug Honkamp).