Monticello girls golf team captures region title, heads to state

After winning the regular season title, the Monticello girls golf team headed to Hobble Creek Golf Course in Springville on Monday, May 10 for the Region 16 Championship.

The girls stumbled a little on the very challenging course, but still played well enough to accomplish the mission they set out to – winning the region championship match.

The Lady Buckaroos won the tournament with a team score of 475 followed by North Summit in second with a 487. Gunnison Valley and Altamont finished third and fourth with team scores of 496 and 551.

Individually, Olivia Chamberlain was again the low-shot medalist at Hobble Creek firing a round of 105. She also finished as the low golfer for all region matches with an average score of 99.43.

On the day, Kylie Rogers shot a 121 and Kennedy Brewer walked off the course with a score of 123. Amy Lewis dipped a little compared to her previous round at Hobble Creek, but still got around the course in 127 shots. Gabi Dowell and Jade Nielson rounded out the MHS scoring with rounds of 131 and 138.

Following Chamberlain, three other Monticello golfers finished in the top ten for the region. Lewis was fifth in the region with an average score of 119.71. Rogers was only a hair behind in sixth, averaging 119.83 shots per round. Brewer finished seventh in the region with a 121.50 shot average.

Following the region championship MHS Head Coach Nathan Chamberlain said, “Coming into this season I didn’t know how we would be in comparison to the other schools in our region.

“Olivia and Kennedy were the only two girls on the team who had played an 18-hole round before we started the season. After two weeks of practicing in the cafeteria I was sure we were going to have a fun season.

“Once we hit the course, Coach Brewer and I gave it what we had, to keep the girls motivated and improving. It has been a great year and we are looking forward to state this week.”

Indeed, on Tuesday, May 18 at Rose Park Golf Course in Salt Lake City, the Lady Bucks competed at the Utah State 2A Girls Golf Championship. We’ll have the results in next week’s edition.

Track and field
With the season winding down, on Wednesday, May 12, the Monticello track and field teams competed in the 2A Region 16 track and field championships on North Summit’s home track in Coalville.

The boys had a good meet finishing second overall as a team – a mere 15 points behind region champ Duchesne who scored 135 points at the meet. It must be noted that many of the top Buckaroo performers competed sparingly in the meet.

The ladies finished in sixth place, scoring 41 points. They were well behind region champ North Summit who claimed the girls title after tallying 205 points.

The top Monticello boys meet highlights came in two relay events. The sprint medley team of Boston Freestone, Eric Montague, Alan Pettit, and Cory Bunker ran a 3:44.92 – winning the event and setting a school record in the process.

In the 4x400, the Buckaroos again took the win with a time of 3:40.55 and set another school record. Team members for that event included Cameron Bailey, Boston Freestone, Eric Montague and Alan Pettit.

In the other relay – the 4x100 – the Monticello boys (Cameron Bailey, Chandler Henderson, Robert Morrison, and Ryan Nielson) claimed fifth place with a time of 51.81.

The Monticello boys also got several individual wins at the region championship. Alan Pettit won the 1600-meter in 4:41.89, nipping teammate Cory Bunker who placed second with a 4:42.58.

Pettit followed up his 1600 win with a victory in the 800-meter with a time of 2:02.81. Bunker placed third this time with a 2:07.42.

In the 400-meter, Boston Freestone came away with a region title with his time of 52.53. Eric Montague finished in third place in the same race with a time of 53.95.

The boys team ran a number of younger athletes in the sprint events. In the 100 Ryan Nielson was Monticello’s top finisher when he placed 14th with a time of 12.74. Cameron Bailey finished in 15th with a 12.80, Robert Morrison got 21st in 13.40 and Tuff Adair crossed the line in 26th with a 14.18.

In the 200-meter sprint, Eric Montague had a great showing, finishing fourth place in 24.06. Cameron Bailey finished 15th for Monticello with a 25.61 and Chandler Henderson got 18th in 27.57.

In other races, Curtis Bunker placed 4th in the 3200-meter, running an 11:35.02. Teammate Jesse Pettit was in next in with a fifth-place finish with a time of 11:51.09. Jacob Johnson placed tenth in the 300-meter hurdles, crossing the line in 54.87.

In the field events, Boston Freestone finished third in the high jump, clearing five feet, ten inches. Robert Musselman earned top-five finishes in the discus (third, 115-10), javelin (fourth, 143-05), and shot put (third, 40-40).

Cedar English also snagged a couple top-five finishes when he claimed second in the javelin (149-00) and fourth in the discus (114-08). Tuff Adair put on a good show in the shot put, finishing fourth with a 38-10.

If the boys can put it all together this weekend, they have a real shot to claim another track and field state championship, which would be Monticello’s third title since 2016 – the year of Monticello’s first-ever track and field championship.

The girls team had some nice finishes at the region championship, but they simply lack the number of athletes to score very well as a team.

Lily Long had a great meet, winning the 3200-meter with a time of 12:21.4. She followed that up with a second-place finish in the 1600 (5:50.31).

Teammate Shayla Pehrson placed sixth in the 3200 with a 14:20.86 and seventh in the 1600 with a time of 6:51.79. Lily Long also placed fourth in the 800M running a 2:38.11.

The Monticello girls’ best finish in the sprint events came in the 100-meter when Sadie Adair tied for fourth with a time of 14.08. That was just the start of the excitement because Adair had to win a run-off against the freshman from Gunnison Valley. She tied in the finals to qualify for state.

Fortunately, Sadie pulled it off and will be running in the 100-meter at state. Cami Dowell also ran the 100, finishing 15th with a time of 15.79. Berlynn Black cracked the top ten in the 200-meter when she came home tenth with a 29.80. Rosy Beh claimed 13th in the same race with a time of 32.05.

The Lady Buckaroos sprint medley team of Sadie Adair, Cami Dowell, Shayla Pehrson, and Lily Long claimed a solid third place finish with a 4:51.61.

In the 4x100, Sadie Adair, Rosy Beh, Cami Dowell, and Berlynn Black finished fifth overall, running a 58.33.

Finally, in the 300-meter hurdles, Berlynn Black finished sixth, crossing the line in 57.08, and Shayla Pehrson finished tenth with a 59.13.

For the first time in a long while, the Utah State Track and Field Championships will not be decided on the Clarence Robison Track at Brigham Young University in Provo.

Instead, due to Covid restrictions, the Buckaroos hit the road for Davis High School in Kaysville this Friday and Saturday, May 21-22 to compete for a 2A state championship.

We’ll have the complete results next week, but if you hear a lot of sirens in Monticello late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, you’ll know the boys won the title.

Baseball
With Monticello’s win over Altamont May 8 in the first round of the one-loss bracket, the Buckaroos stayed alive in the hunt for a 2A State Baseball championship.

Week two of the event moved to Maple Mountain High School in Spanish Fork where, on Thursday, May 13, MHS faced familiar 2A Central foe North Sevier.

Due to scant details, all we can report is that Monticello fell by a score of 12-2 to the Wolves. Devin Hatch started the game and Paxton Christensen closed it.

In the first inning, lone senior Christensen walked and later scored after a steal. Logan Draper also had a hit in the game and scored. Josh Kirby also played well in the loss.

Monticello finishes the 2021 campaign with two wins and 16 losses. Though it was a tough year, it’s not likely lost on the team that they were blessed to be able to play after missing all of last season because of COVID.

Head Coach Steve Draper has a very young team, so hopefully with a little time and experience, the Bucks can get clicking on the field in upcoming seasons.

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