Mountain View Marana senior Hailey Tellez. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

 

Sometime around 3 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 13 the 2018-19 high school sports year began. That’s when half a dozen golf teams from around the state stepped up to the first tee to begin a nine-month journey that will continue until Tuesday, May 13, the last day of baseball and softball championships.

For golf, the top 12 teams from each division, along with the next 18 unattached golfers, will qualify for state. The Division II state tournament is scheduled for Oct. 22-23 and the D-I tournament for Oct. 29-30. In all, 156 girls and 156 boys will remain from an estimated 1,500 or so. The best of the best.

In a departure from the past, the top 12 teams will be determined based on ranking, not section finishes. The result should be a more competitive field from top to bottom.

For Southern Arizona, the girls of Marana and Mountain View got things started with a match at Quarry Pines. Marana came out on top on the team side but Mountain View senior Hailey Tellez came away with the first win of the year, a 9-over 45 on the front nine.

“I expect low 40s all the time and hopefully some high 30s by the end of the year,” Tellez said. “I also want to make it a really fun senior year and I’m trying to make it a fun lasting moment for my career.”

Tellez qualified for state last year as an individual and she feels she needs to work on her driver to make it once again.

Marana is led by Madi Nagelhout. Nagelhout is ranked one of the top ten sophomores based on her freshman season and she feels she needs to work on her short game and the mental aspect of competition.

“I want to shoot in the low 40s on every course and hopefully make state with a couple friends from my team,” Nagelhout said.