Big Four week for track, baseball, golf, softball

Wow, what a week for high school sports, with outstanding performances by local athletes in track, golf, softball and baseball.  
Coach Jeff Hunt files for Monticello’s track team.  “For each of the past four years, the top 1A team at the BYU Invitational has gone on to win the 1A team title.  The Buckaroo boys track team set themselves up as the team to beat at the state meet in two weeks by being the top 1A team at BYU and finishing third overall.  
“They were led by strong performances by Devin Wright, Jake Duncan and Dallin Duncan.  At the end of Friday’s competition, Monticello was in first place after Devin Wright won the Decathlon.  
“Early Saturday morning, the boys held on to the top spot at Devin once again won the javelin and Jake Duncan and Ford Welch added to the point total by finishing fourth and eighth, each.  
“Dallin Duncan was next to shine by finishing second in high jump, while Devin finished fifth.  At lunch time, the boys still held the lead overall as the the 4x100m team of Kendal Maughan, Brian Robinson, Montana Welch and Jake Duncan finish fifth and the Medley relay team of Montana, Kendal, Dallin and Justin Wright were sixth.  Both were the top 1A teams.  
“Parowan and Grand started to make a charge in the afternoon and soon overtook the outnumbered Bucks, despite a strong finish in the 300m hurdles by the Duncan brothers.  By the time a completely gassed Devin (who had been competing for four days) finished seventh in the 400m it was clear team would drop to third.  
“However, they were the top 1A team by more than 20 points over Rich.  Looking back as far as I could find, this was the best showing ever by a Monticello boys team and it has been since 2006 that they have been in the top 10.
“On the girl’s side, Macee Nielson got the girls started off strong with a second place finish in the 3200m and then came up sick and had to sit the rest of the meet.  Without her the ladies dropped to tenth.  
“The bright spots for the girls came from Mara Wells, who was fourth in the javelin and Arianna Reay, who was fourth in the long jump and seventh in the 100m.  The girls medley relay of Arianna, Mara, Martha Beh, and Brittany Keith and the 4x400m relay team of Martha Beh, Sadee Musselman, Loren Randall, and Swayzi Slade were both sixth.
“The region championship is looming this week where both teams are favored to repeat as region champs.  Expect strong challenges from the Whitehorse boys and Green River girls who both have shown that they can give the Buckaroos a run for their money.”
While we’re talking Buckaroos, let me mention golf.  The Buck’s high school golf team, led by medalist, Tanner Eardley, who fired a 86, captured the region golf championship at the Hideout last Tuesday with a convincing victory over Green River and Pinnacle.  
Not far behind Eardley is Jonah Cafferty, who whacked the ball 89 times in 18 holes, Chase Doucet, who came in with a 93 and Skyler Lowe, who beat the century mark at 97.  State is this week at the Moab Golf Club.  
The Buckaroo girls also played in region with Jamie Keyes grabbing medalist honors at 112, followed by Shelby Lewis at 122 and Amy Reeve at 149.  Hoorah for girls playing golf! Hooray!  The girls also have state on Wednesday in Moab.
A little more Bucks?  The young Buckaroo baseball team ended their season at Enterprise on Saturday all the way over in Enterprise with an 11-1 loss in state playoff action.  
The Bucks scored first in the first inning but couldn’t find the bats after that to go down in defeat.  Look for things to change as these kids get older and better.  I predict a state championship somewhere down the line.
One more Buckaroo thing: Devin Wright, who captured the 1A-2A decathlon championship at the BYU Invitational, actually took second overall in the 1A-5A decathlon, finishing with 5582 points to the champion, Jake Smith of Copper Hills High School.  
Wright placed first in four events; high jump, 400 meters, javelin and the grueling 1500 meter run and second in the discus.  He even placed third in the pole vault, an event in which he had never before competed, fifth in 110 hurdles and long jump and sixth out of 12 competitors in 100 meter dash.  His worst event?  The shot put, where he came in eighth.
This following the Davis Invitational on April 30, where Wright was invited to compete in the javelin and as an alternate for the 400m race. While there he competed in the high jump and cleared 6’ 0”, good for second place.
He also competed in the 400m open division and ran a 52.11 which placed him seventh. The last event was the javelin where Wright threw a personal record of 193’ 01”. That mark is exactly nine feet off the state record and good for first place. It also earned the award for the male performance of the meet.
The Broncos did some stuff last week, too.  Nothing too big, just a no-hitter from sophomore pitcher Logan Meyer!  
Meyer pitched the 14-0 gem in victory over the Grand County Red Devils after senior Tyler Nielson tossed a three hitter on the South Summit Wildcats in a play-in game the Broncos won 11-1.  
Barkley Christensen and Dylan Richmond homered in the South Summit win as the Broncos cranked 11 hits.  Trey McDonald tripled in the no-hitter to go along with eight doubles, two each from Colton Rouche, Meyer and Nielson as the Broncos blasted their way to the semifinals with 14 hits.  
Next up, the Enterprise Wolves on Thursday at 11 a.m. in Kearns.
The girls were on the diamond in Salt Lake City, too, returning to finish up the snow postponed Swing for Life softball tournament.  The girls played three more games, losing to 5A Copper Hills 10-3, probably feeling the effects of having just stepped off the bus after a six hour bus ride, routing Rowland Hall 12-2 and then losing a tough battle to the ninth ranked team in the state, 5A Bountiful.  
The Lady Broncos were tied 4-4 in the fifth inning before succumbing, 8-4.  The girls start the 2A tournament Thursday in Spanish Fork.
Just a reminder of tradition, when the San Juan girls win state volleyball, they also tend to win state in softball.  The same with the boys, who often win state in baseball the same year they take state in football.  I’m just saying.
San Juan track athletes also competed at the BYU Invitational.  Ammon Mitchell grabbed top honors for the Broncos with a second place finish in the 110 meter hurdles.  He also was ninth in the 300 hurdles.  
Lindsay Christensen is third in javelin, Courtney Macdonald fifth in the 100 hurdles and ninth in long jump, Katie Hiatt seventh in the 3200 meter run, as is Kelli Meyer in the 800.  Sade Kyles is fifth in the 100 meter dash, Simone Shumway is eighth in the 200 meter, Colby Redd eighth in the long jump and Herschel Todachinne was tenth in shot put.  The Bronco 4x100 relay team is first, with Kyles, Macdonald, Shumway, Meyer and Delaney Nielson.  The boys 4x100 placed fourth, with Redd, Mitchell, Talon Jack, Ryan Lyman, and Brett Laws.
Tennis anyone?  The Bronco tennis team enters the state tournament at BYU Saturday. After region play last week, AJ Slavens, Josh Meyer, and Jeffrey Walker enter the tournament as fourth seeds. The doubles teams of Ty Hosler/Dallin Jacobsen and Seth Moses/Stockton Perkins both comein as third seeds.