Casteel, Ironwood Ridge win Arizona D-II high school golf championships

The Casteel girls and Ironwood Ridge boys teams won the Division II Arizona Interscholastic Association's high school golf championships during two-day tournaments at the Aguila Golf Course in Phoenix.

The girls' tournament featured the top 12 ranked teams in D-II competing in r ounds on Oct. 24-25. The boys tournament, which also took the top 12 teams, was held on Oct. 26-27. Both tournaments saw a repeat of last year's top teams once again battling it out at the end.

Here's a rundown of the tournaments:

Girls D-II

The first round saw three teams in a tight competition: The Casteel Colts, which finished second in 2022, the Chaparral Firebirds and Cactus Shadows, the defending D-II girls champion. The day ended with Casteel at 298 total strokes and Cactus Shadows at 306, setting up a showdown between the two teams for the second consecutive year.

On Day 2, the Falcons totaled 297, the lowest team score for either day, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Colts behind Julia Herzberg and Jordin Cowing, who both shot under part in the first round. Herzberg followed it up with another under-par round on the second day, to keep Casteel ahead. The Colts finished with 303 strokes in round two, which gave them a total score of 601 for the tournament to Cactus Shadows' 603. Chaparral came in third with a 631 team score.

The tournament's individual low score was a combined 6-under over two days by Chaparral's Raegan Capizzi, who shot 5-under the opening round. She was followed by Herzberg in second at 3-under for the two-day tournament. Charlene Lamb led Cactus Shadows with 1-under total over the two days.

Boys D-II

The D-II championship was decided by an unusual tiebreaker, which gave Ironwood Ridge the title over Notre Dame after both finshed tied after Friday's second round of what had been a three-way race that included Catalina Foothills. They were the top three teams in last year's tournament as well, won by Ironwood Ridge.

At the end of the two-day event, Ironwood Ridge and Notre Dame -- which finished 1-2 in the 2022 tournament -- were tied with 580 team totals, and Catalina Foothills, which led after the first round, finishing just a stroke behind at 581.

The tiebreaker then came down to which team had the lowest individual golfer's score in the second round. That was two Ironwood Ridge players, Wyatt Charnoki and Sean Kelly, both who both shot 76, giving the title to the Nighthawks. Notre Dame's lowest round on the second day was a 77 from Daniel Rowe.

Notre Dame had the top overall indivdiual golfer, Landon Ashcraft, who shot a stellar 8-under par over the course of the two-day tournament to take the individual title (5-under on Day 1, 3-under on Day 2).

Up Next:

The girls Division I two-day tournament begins next Tuesday at the same course, and the boys tournament gets under way on Thursday, concluding on Friday. Xavier enters the tournament ranked No. 1 on the girls side, with Hamilton No. 1-ranked team on the boys side.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Casteel, Ironwood Ridge win Ariozna D-II high school golf championships