The Spanish Springs Cougars turned in one of their highest team totals of the spring season, but it was still good enough to win this week’s High Desert League boys golf tournament.

Spanish Springs finished with a 396, but that mark still bested the field at Northgate Golf Course in Northwest Reno. Bishop Manogue and Galena finished second and third with team totals of 400 and 401 respectively. The four-point margin of victory was the smallest of the season for Spanish Springs, the defending 4A state champions.

The SSHS squad spent last weekend getting in some practice rounds at TPC Las Vegas, the site of next month’s 4A State Golf Championships. Cougars coach Victor Sherbondy said conditions last weekend at the Clark County complex were pristine. He said that may have had something to do with his squad’s inflated scores Wednesday at Northgate.

“I’d attribute all of it to conditions of the course. This past weekend we had some practice rounds in Las Vegas on probably one of the nicest courses in the state of Nevada,” Sherbondy said. “Today, we had to play on one of the tougher courses in terms of conditions. I think it was hard for the kids to make the adjustments.

“The greens were just punched and sanded. Some were faster than others. They were not consistent and the kids were frustrated with that all day long.”

Junior Robert Perea was the top Cougar finisher Wednesday. His score of 75 was good enough for a second-place tie.

Galena’s Andrew Mims took home the individual medalist honors with a round of 74.

Another Spanish Springs junior, Ren Wilson, carded a 76. That was good for fourth overall. Scott Kelly and Zach Beebe turned in scores of 79 and 82. Beebe’s 82 was his highest score of the spring. Cameron Lafferty and David Yau both posted scores of 84, but the Cougars counted just one toward their team total.

Spanish Springs and the six other High Desert League schools will be in action again Monday at RedHawk Golf Club, the home course for the Cougars. Sherbondy believes Wednesday’s higher scores are not indicative of anything to come.

“I’m not too concerned. I feel like when we get back on our home course, for our fifth league tournament, we’ll be just fine,” Sherbondy said. “Whenever you can win, you always have to feel pretty good about that. It’s the 14th straight tournament that we have taken first place in. We have a pretty good streak going and we hope to continue that.”

The Rail City’s other HDL school, Reed, had finished last among the conference’s seven schools in three of the first four league tourneys. The Raiders were much better this week, finishing fifth with a team total of 426. The total was good enough to beat Fallon and McQueen.

Reed was paced by Nick Stefan’s 81. Jake Nelson was next in line for Reed with an 84. Cory Whitaker (86), Mitch Vaughn (86) and David Carr (89) made up the rest of the Raiders’ scoring contingent.