Several New Mexico golfers tee off in 2024 National High School Championships

The Albuquerque Academy girls and boys golf teams, as well as the Volcano Vista boys and individual golfers from Piedra Vista and La Cueva recently teed off in the PGA High School Golf National Invitational, a prestigious tournament.

In order to qualify for the invite-only event, teams and individual golfers had to be state champions and meet a certain score differential.

In May, Academy swept the 4A boys and girls state tournaments, Volcano Vista’s boys won the 5A state title, Piedra Vista’s Anne Yost was the top golfer among the 5A girls and La Cueva’s Jake Yrene was the 5A boys medalist.

The PGA invitational — which is in its sixth year — took place July 1-3 (boys) and July 8-10 (girls) at three golf courses in the north Dallas metro area — Fields Ranch West in Frisco, Westridge Golf Club in McKinney and Gentle Creek Golf Club in Prosper.

Yost, a rising senior, shot 2 strokes over par on the three courses and tied for 41st among 207 female competitors — best among any of the New Mexico golfers.

The Albuquerque Academy boys carded a plus-74 to finish 30th among 50 teams.

Clark Sonnenberg, who graduated in May, shot a 3-over par for the tournament to pace the Chargers. He was the top boys golfer from New Mexico and finished tied for 51st place out of 304 competitors.

Yrene, who won the state title in his junior and senior years, was 4-over par and tied for 56th place overall in Texas.

Andrew Stepien, another recent graduate, finished 20-over and was the low scorer for Volcano Vista, which finished plus-123 as a team and in 43rd place.

The Albuquerque Academy girls recorded a team score of 95-over par to finish 17th out of 31 teams.

Zachary Haas, the incoming head coach of the Academy girls team, said he was impressed with the team’s performance.

“I think that they showed a lot of pride with their game and (they) composed themselves throughout the round. They were matched with Division I athletes,” he said during an interview with the Journal.

Amazing experience

Anya Parasher, who wrapped up her senior year in May, finished 6 strokes over par to lead the Chargers.

On the Westridge course, she carded a 69, three strokes under par, including an eagle on Hole 9.

Also on the Academy team were recent graduate Anneliese Carlson (plus-37), rising sophomores Adelyn Haas (plus-17) and Mackenzie Hines (plus-62) and rising freshman Gabriella Sanchez (plus-35).

Parasher said the team adapted well to playing in Texas.

“For many of the girls, it was their first time playing outside of New Mexico, so the course conditions were extremely different — the grass type, the humidity, the elevation, even the course set-up was foreign to us. But we did a lot of research and put ourselves in a good spot to perform well before the tournament,” she said. “The night before each round, our coach would map out each of our holes for us, and we would all get together and discuss.”

Coach Haas talked more about his team’s mentality.

“We take a lot of time before each round, and we go over the course in detail. We have these yardage books and lots of it (the information) is course management ... so I think our game management was very superior in this tournament,” he said.

Hines said her “experience was amazing.”

“It was really nice to be able to spend that time with the team, especially with the seniors who are leaving this year,” she said.

With Parasher and Carlson graduating, the Chargers will be relatively young going into the next prep season.

“They (the younger athletes) have big shoes to fill. We have two seniors that really contributed to the program, so we need these young ones to figure out how to become leaders” Haas said.