After the opening day, any one of five teams appears to have a chance to capture championship honors at the 12th annual Dick Stoddard Memorial Invitational boys golf tournament.
But if you want to talk about competitive when the second and final round is played today at Eagle Valley Golf Course, the best battle just might be waged between the A and B teams of the tournament host Carson Senators. Both are in the top five of the 19-team tournament - Carson's A group shot 373 on Eagle Valley's East Course to earn a share of third-place in the standings and the B group shot 378 to grab the fifth-place - and both are within sight of Bellarmine Prep from San Jose, which leads with its 368.
The tournament concludes today with the final round scheduled for an 8 a.m. shotgun start on the West Course.
With scores that close, perhaps it would be best to classify the two Carson teams as A and 1A. Either way, first-year coach Rod Butler couldn't help but smile about the depth of the program.
"They have their own little rivalry," Butler said. "They (the second group) want to win. Tomorrow will be the big day; we'll see who can separate themselves. You know the West Course, it can go either way.
"Overall, the tournament is going to be close."
Bellarmine, which has won two CIF Central Coast Section championships in the last six years, leads by four shots over Fallon (372) and five over Carson and Eureka, Calif. (373). Dayton carded a 392 to move into sixth-place in the team standings, one shot ahead of South Tahoe.
Fallon's Brody Hammon, the tournament's defending individual champion, shot 4-under 68 to grab a one-shot lead over Greg Wenzel of Sparks and Bellarmine's J.D. de Regt. Hammon was consistent all day, as the senior had no bogeys on his card and birdied
South Tahoe's Dan D'Angelo was fourth with his season-best 70 - highlighted by a 70-yard shot for an eagle-2 on No. 7, his first hole of the day - while Fallon sophomore Scott Smith and Nick Brassill of Bellarmine shot 71.
Two Carson players shot even-par to break into the top 10: Jeremy Nielsen of the A group and Andrew Meyer of the B group. Nielsen was coming off an 89 the day before on the tough layout at D'Andrea in Sparks, but rebounded with a round that included a run where he had three birdies over a stretch of five holes (Nos. 17, 2 and 3).
Rounding out the A team's scoring were Jimmy Potter 73, Scott Jenkins 74, Tyson Roser 76, J.T. Cockerill 78 and Tim Hohl 78. The B team's totals included Chad Gilmore 75, Kyle Winter 75, Bryan Upton 77, Derek Zastre 79 and Matt Mitchell's non-scoring 86.
"That's great, especially when you figure seven of those guys are underclassmen and they all played well," Butler said. "It's pretty competitive between all those kids. Except for Tim (Hohl), those other guys are all shooting for five spots for our next league match."
The Senators finished fourth as a team Tuesday during the Northern 4A match played at D'Andrea. Galena remained unbeaten on the season, while Fallon finished a close second. That result, coupled with the Greenwave's performance on Wednesday came as welcome news to coach Phil Pinder.
"We're real happy about today. This (372) might have been a school record, and if it wasn't, it must be pretty close," Pinder said. "Our program has come a long ways in the last eight years. Our first goal is still to get to zone and then our next goal after that is to get to state, but we just have to take it match by match."
Only two teams from the Northern 4A Regional Tournament will qualify for state next month. That should be a pretty competitive battle, too.
"There's five real good teams that, on a given day, any one of them could qualify (for state)," Butler said. "It's going to be a matter of who can bring their game those two days."
Dayton was led by Kevin Goles with a 75, Patrick Lassak's 77 and Shane Castro's 78. Trent Wood shot 80 and Ryan Rodriguez 82 to round out the scoring for the Dust Devils.
