Bonanza still in driver’s seat

Mike Sims

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

The Bonanza boys' golf team is thinking repeat after last year's state championship victory. But this season the Bengals might have a bit more competition on both sides of town.

The Bengals beat Palo Verde by seven strokes with a total score of 780. Aaron Slonim won the individual title by one stroke ahead of teammate Joseph Wiesner. Wiesner is gone, but Bonanza has Slonim returning along with Chris Kalbfliesh and Pat Coffey. Kalbfliesh and Coffey both finished in the top 20 at the 2004 state tournament.

"Bonanza and Palo Verde are about 15 strokes ahead of us scoring-wise this season," Las Vegas High coach Sean Purtill said.

Las Vegas is shaping up to be a solid team, according Purtill.

"We are in position to win 12 straight matches if things go right," Purtill said. "We are about 40 strokes better than the teams in our conference."

Las Vegas just missed last year's state tournament but has a different mind set this year.

"We need to get ourselves ready for the regional tournament and give ourselves a shot at getting into the state tournament," Purtill said.

Green Valley coach Greg Murphy thinks his team will be the one to beat in the Sunrise Region.

"We are off to a 2-0 start and we only lost one senior," Murphy said. "We have got a lot of good players and we should win the region championship."

Green Valley made it into last year's state tournament finishing fifth, 40 strokes behind Bonanza. The Gators return a strong core led by last year's Sunrise Region champ, Adam Tebbs.

"We have good depth and if we can peak at the right time we'll have a chance to win state," Murphy said.

Green Valley and Las Vegas will have to contend with Coronado, last year's third place finisher, in the Sunrise Region. Coronado returns four starters from last year's team and could run away with the regional title.

As for the Sunset Region, Palo Verde will try and get back to being the champions after a three-year drought.

"It's early right now," Palo Verde coach Jeff Wolfram said. "We are going to be competitive, but this is the best young group of kids we have ever had."

Wolfram said his team would be fine against rival Bonanza, but mentioned Bishop Gorman as a sleeper.

"Gorman has two seniors who are really solid," Wolfram said. "Centennial will also give some teams a pretty good challenge."

Bishop Gorman returns Johnny Pinjuv, the 2003 individual state champion. Pinjuv finished 10 strokes behind Slonim in last year's tournament.

"We have been the state runner-up the last three years," Wolfram said. "We could win it all or we could miss the state tournament. The Sunset is going to be competitive."