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- (left to right) Finn Meister & Beckett Carlson
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- (left to right) Izzy Piazza, Rylee Salome, Haram Lee
The 29th Tucson Conquistadores Spring Classic teed off April 15-16 under at Silverbell and El Rio Golf Courses, where local resident Finn Meister took advantage of playing at home by winning the Boys Championship division by two strokes.
Starting the final round four strokes off the pace, Meister shot lights out in the final round and caught fire as he secured five birdies and a bogey-free round to shoot 5-under 65 on Silverbell for the outright victory. Meister finished the tournament at 6-under-par 134 and won by two shots ahead of another Tucson local Beckett Carlson. This is his first victory of the season in five events. Wrapping up the top-3 position was a two-way tie between Grady Millar out of Vancouver, Washington, and Joseph Nelson out of Gilbert, Arizona with each of them shooting 2-under 68 in the final round.
In the Girls Championship division, Rylee Salome of Las Lunas, New Mexico fired a first round 72 at Silverbell to stay in contention heading into the final round after trailing by just one shot off the leader. She repeated her first-round success and stayed even keel by shooting 72 the next day to force a playoff between last year’s winner Haram Lee of Las Vegas, Nevada and Izzy Piazza of Phoenix, AZ. Salome prevailed and wounded up on top of the leaderboard after a clutch birdie putt on the first extra hole.
In addition to the championship divisions, Callaway Conkwright of Gilbert (69-71) won the Boys 15-18 division at even-par 140 at Silverbell. At El Rio Golf Course, Ethan Butters of Chandler won the Boys 13-14 division at even par (71-69—141). Butters was the only person to shoot in red figures in the for the tournament with a final round one-under par finish. Another home win, Kallum De Guia of Tucson won the Boys 11-12 Division at 2-under par (36-32—68), contested at El Rio Golf Course and his first win of the season.
In the Girls 15-18 division contested at Silverbell, Nahomy Labrado of El Paso, Texas (77-79) placed first at 16-over-par 156. At El Rio in the Girls 13-14 division, Alyssa Rigby of Goodyear (81-77) took first place by one stroke at 18-over-par 158. Queen Creek’s Samantha Evangelista won the Girls 11-12 division at 9-over par (41-38—79). And Kimsey Terrell of Phoenix won in the Girls 10 and Under Division 5-over par (35-7—73).
