Balanced Bonanza triumphs

James Yodice

Wednesday, May 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Bishop Gorman went one-two individually, but a kid named Lann carried Bonanza to the Southern Nevada Class 4A zone boys' golf championship.

Lann Higa, the Bengals' No. 4 player, shot even-par 72 on Tuesday -- 10 strokes better than his first round -- and Bonanza went on to an 11-stroke victory over the Gaels at Sunrise Country Club's West course.

Gorman junior Robert Hasman was the medalist, shooting 69 Tuesday for a two-day total of 5-under-par 139. Teammate Tyler Mays tied Bonanza's Scott Piercy for second place at 141, but in a playoff Mays parred the first extra hole while Piercy double-bogeyed.

Bonanza, Gorman, Green Valley and Durango won trips to the state tournament May 22-23 at the Genoa Lakes course just south of Carson City.

The Bengals, the regular-season Sunset Division champions, shot the day's best round, 371. Piercy (70) and Billy Harvey (73) gave Bonanza their usual low scores, but it was Higa who had coach Dave Varrato smiling from ear to ear.

"My philosophy is that success breeds success," Varrato said. "We relied on our top three guys (Harvey, Piercy and Ben Auten) all year, but we got a big boost from Lanny. That really helped."

If you make the argument that Bonanza still wins by a stroke even without Higa's 72, don't bother. Gorman's Chris McHugh was disqualified after the round, and the Gaels had to count an 85 instead of McHugh's 83. If Higa duplicates his Monday score and there is no DQ, Gorman wins by a shot.

Either way, it was apparent during this tournament that any one of the four teams going to state from Clark County can win it all.

Green Valley improved Monday's score by 25 shots and finished third at 769. Durango was fourth at 773, 39 shots ahead of Silverado.

"I think our No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 guys have to play real good at state. That's what we did today," said Piercy. "It takes a little bit of pressure off."

Added Harvey, "Me and Ben didn't play to our potential and we still won. I thought it was to our advantage to be (from the Sunset Division) for zone."

As for Hasman, the steady junior had it all going the past 48 hours.

"I played the best I've played in awhile," he said. "I've been playing good the last year. It's a combination of everything. Everything was working pretty well (this week)."

Notes

* STATE QUALIFIERS: In addition to the top four teams, the low five individuals not on one of those teams also earn a trip to the state tournament. They are Cimarron-Memorial's Ricky Thompson and Michael Russell, Silverado's Brad Callihan and Mark Zabolio and Western's Eric Kijowski. Kijowski's brother Joel, the defending state champion, missed qualifying by five shots.

* COMPARISON: At least this year, it was easy to see which of the two divisions was the strongest. The Sunset Division had three of the top four teams this week, while the Sunrise entrants -- outside of defending zone champ Green Valley -- were less than spectacular. Basic was 113 shots behind the fourth-place team, Durango, with Las Vegas 145 back of the Trailblazers and Chaparral a whopping 198 strokes in arrears of Durango.