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Turlock, Hilmar golf headed to league championships with sense of security
League golf pic
Senior Landon Azevedo, pictured here at the Yellowjacket Invitational in March, will lead his Hilmar team at the Trans Valley League Championships on Monday. - photo by Journal file photo

League championships for boys golf will be held on Monday for schools across the area. These tournaments are typically a place for teams to put in one final, solid performance in the hopes of qualifying for Divisionals as a team, but for Turlock and Hilmar High, its respective tournaments will instead be a formality as its boys have a ticket to Divisionals all but in the bag.

The Bulldogs' position entering Monday's Central California Conference Championships is the most permanent of the two schools as they will enter as the CCC's second place team, three points ahead of third place Pitman High.

“The way it sits right now, there’s not going to be a lot of change over,” head coach Jason Boswell said.

Since the top two schools from the CCC will be chosen to play team golf at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I Tournament on May 4, Turlock's trip to Rancho Del Rey seems to be secure. In fact, the only way Turlock could miss out on Divisionals would be if they finish fifth overall and Pitman places first — a highly improbable scenario.

“The way the league is right now, the bottom three teams score so high it would be difficult (for that to happen),” Boswell said. “But we’re looking to place first in the tournament just to keep our season moving forward.”

The Bulldogs will be led by Logan Adams, Bailey Old and Zevey Lopez, the last of which is the more experienced of the bunch with a trip to Masters as a freshman with the Turlock team under his belt.

Hilmar is in a similar position as Turlock. Sitting in third place in the Trans Valley League behind Escalon and Ripon High, all the 'Jackets have to do at the TVL Championships on Monday is finish ahead of Hughson High to qualify for the SJS DV Tournament since the top three schools from the TVL are considered qualifiers.

“The story’s been the same all season, if I can get all my guys playing how they can on any given day, to get it together all on the same day, then we can beat these guys,” Hilmar head coach Ty Pettigrew said. “We just have to beat Hughson.”

The 'Jackets will be led by senior Landon Azevedo, a three-time individual Masters qualifier who is looking to break into the NorCal tournament before his high school career is finished.

“He’s got some competition out there. He’s going to have to play well. He’s always been in the top two or three in every tournament we’ve been in, so I expect him to go on,” Pettigrew said.