Cottonwood's Williams, Academy's Whitten and Haas win state golf titles

High school state golf champions could be found up and down the I-25 corridor on Tuesday.

In Socorro, Albuquerque Academy’s girls won the Class 4A state title at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, and the Chargers produced both individual state champions.

Down the road in Elephant Butte, Cottonwood Classical Prep eighth-grader Ariana Williams not only captured the Class 1A-3A title, but she demolished the field, winning by an incredible 19 shots at Turtleback Mountain Golf and Resort.

“I never really imagined it,” Williams said in a phone interview. “After Day 1 … (I knew) I had this opportunity to win it, but I just didn’t realize I’d win by 19 shots. If you had told me that before the first day, I’d be like, ‘that’s crazy’.”

Williams shot rounds of 79 and 76 for a 36-hole total of 155. Robertson senior Payton Woolf, at 174, was a distant second.

In Socorro, freshman Thomas Whitten and junior Adelyn Haas won individual titles for Academy.

Whitten, who also plays baseball for Academy, was involved in the tightest of all the individual tournaments on Tuesday. At one point relatively late in the back nine, there were four boys tied for the lead at 5-over.

Whitten birdied the par-5 16th hole, with a nice chip and a short putt, to get to 4-over, and that’s where he finished. Artesia sophomore Beau Byers was a shot behind at the end, and Lincoln Hoffer and Javan Rael, both of Los Alamos, were two shots back of Whitten.

“It was very tight,” Whitten said by phone. “I like these moments. It’s always fun playing in high pressure moments, making something happen.”

Whitten said his short game bailed him out repeatedly on the back nine where he only hit several greens.

“It’s just an amazing feeling,” he said. “I just can’t be any more proud of myself. It was a mental battle out there, and it was very hard.”

Artesia’s boys won the 4A championship, 623-634 over Academy. Los Alamos was a close third, three strokes behind the Chargers. Jack Byers, Artesia’s top starting baseball pitcher, finished tied for 11th. Beau is his younger brother.

Academy’s girls romped at New Mexico Tech. The Chargers, led by Haas, walloped the field, beating runner-up Lovington by 47 shots (667-714). St. Pius, in third, also won a trophy.

Haas shot 75-81 to defeat Hayden Dan of Kirtland Central by five shots, and attributed her victory to being relaxed.

“You don’t play to win, you play to swing free,” she said. “That was my goal, to have fun and make good memories with the team. Having that freedom really helped me.”

Academy had two others in the top six, as sophomore Gabby Sanchez (fourth) and Addison Kiburz (fifth) also attained all-state honors.

“It was amazing,” Haas said. “Everybody contributed on the team and we all worked as one.”

Few small-school girls golf programs do it as well as Socorro, and the Warriors added more blue-tinted hardware on Tuesday.