Belen’s Cox Secures Playoff Win, Prevents Academy Sweep
BY GLEN ROSALES / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
The eight-foot par putt for Belen’s Grady Cox touched just about every part of the lip on hole No. 22 — the fourth playoff hole — before dropping to give him the Class 4A boys individual championship Monday.
And it was just about the only thing that went wrong for Albuquerque Academy in the one-day state tournament at Ladera Golf Course. The Chargers not only swept both the boys and girls team championships, something they had not done since 2015, but Academy’s Tay Hwang opposed Cox in the playoff after each shot a four-under 68. On the girls side, Chargers teammates Anya Parasher and Callia Ward also went to a playoff.
Parasher pulled out the somewhat bittersweet individual victory on the final hole of a three-hole aggregate.
“It happened very fast. I don’t think it’s processed yet. We’re really close this season especially,” she said of Ward. “We text each other all the time. Going against another person you know is one thing, but going against your own teammate… And we knew we won as a team. Sittin’ over there, I hated the idea of it. And she’s such a great teammate, too. She took it well. I was really proud of her. We both had 69s today, our lowest rounds ever.”
