Hole-in-One recorded on #11 at the Hideout Golf Course in Monticello

Hole-in-One!  Nope, it wasn’t me… yet.  One would think one would have a hole-in-one by now, what with 55 years of hitting the old hickory sticks. 
Be that as it may, this particular hole-in-one belongs to 28-year-old Matt Nielson, of the RT and LeiAnn variety of Nielson. 
Matt holed his hole-in-one at the Hideout last Friday, the day after his birthday, with his envious, but proud dad watching.  Using an eight iron and a MOJO golf ball, Nielson wound up on tee #11, lofting a high pitch that went right over the flag, and with just enough backspin, rolled back into the cup. 
The ball has been retired and now occupies a hallowed spot somewhere in Nielson-dom forever, along with the story. 
Swim Team
Now that’s not a phrase one hears in Monticello much in recent years, but it is on the lips of 20 to 25 Monticello kids this summer again. 
Three mornings a week, these amphibious pholks hit the pool for a one to two hour swim practice, with coach Oliver Crane on the megaphone barking instructions.  
“Kids are swimming 1,500 meters a practice,” declared Crane.  Swimmers utilize all four strokes, breast stroke, butterfly, back and freestyle, in their lap swims using a variety of methods. 
For example, they might do 50 m using the breast stroke, then 75 with back, 100 with butterfly and 150 freestyle and then do it over again.  “We are just trying to help these kids learn good technique and then we can start stacking on the yardage, “ Crane bubbled. 
Each practiced the swimmers focus on a specific technique, like in the freestyle, a common phrase coming from the coaches lips is “high elbows, high elbows!”  They will concentrate on getting the fingertips to lightly graze the water as they reach forward and then drag the thumb back past the armpit. 
Little things like that.  Crane, who was a club swimmer at BYU Idaho in college for four years, and also began coaching there, likes to get the kids out of the pool periodically to do push-ups, sit-ups and squats, before jumping back in for more laps. 
This is no dog-paddlin’ outfit, here.  This is serious, but lively stuff.  But not too serious yet.  Most teams will practice four times a week for 2-3 hours.
Crane maintains that the optimum age to begin swim team is eight or nine years old.  “Kids start peaking, if they get the technique down and then get in the mileage, at 11 or 12 years old.” 
This is the third year for swim team in Monticello, organized three years ago by Crane and Sarah English.  Some of these kids are getting pretty good. 
You ought to see Sportshorts’ eight-year-old granddaughter do the backstroke!  Crane and English divide up the efforts, with Crane running all the practices and English organizing the trips to swim meets. 
The team traveled to Moab earlier this summer for a five-team meet and ended up third overall, with the boys placing second and the girls third.
The goal of all this swimming is creating life-long swimmers, Crane indicated.  “It’s part of a healthy lifestyle,” he states, “with no joint-impact.” 
“We wanna have fast teams,” he continues.  Keeping times for the different strokes is a great motivator for kids to get better technique-wise and speed wise. 
Crane and English foresee a time when these kids could be competitive enough for high school swimming, too.  It takes months and months and years and years, but don’t look away, it could happen!
This season ends this week, with a meet in Monticello on Saturday.  Come take a look and see if you don’t want to join next year. 
English and Crane are hoping to maybe open the pool a little early if possible next year to get a jump for the 2016 swim team.  See ya there!
Football?
Yep, it’s only a month a way, you know.  The Buckaroos have been very active this summer in the weight room and on the field. 
Head coach Art Adair notes that 15-17 kids have been in the weight room this summer, compared to just two or three last year.  Fifteen kids, three lineman and the rest receivers and quarterbacks participated in the Fort Lewis Football Camp in Durango a couple weeks ago. 
The Bucks were undefeated in their 7-on-7 pool play and were 4-3 in the finals.  “Our kids got a lot of attention at the camp,” added Adair.  “We’re excited.” 
OK, that’s enough football. I just wanted to whet your appetite.
Sprint Triathlon
More than 30 athletes and weekend warriors met on June 29 to compete in the second annual Monticello Sprint Triathlon.
The City of Monticello Parks and Recreation Department sponsored the free race.
The children’s race was a quarter mile run, one-mile bike ride and finished with a 50-meter swim.
Edward Lyman finished in first place for the children’s boys race with a time of 14:27. He was followed by second place Henry Halgren and third place Abram Lyman.
In the girls division, Kenlee Atwood finished first with a time of 14:42. Second was Ayla Carling and third Olive English.
The first place team for the children’s race was Andrew, Wesley, and Luke Payne. The boys completed the course in 10:59.
The adult race was a 5k run, followed by a ten-mile bike ride, and ending with a 500-meter swim.
Finishing in first place in the men’s category and overall is Bob Lambert, who finished the course in 1:12:48.
Second in the men’s race is Brian Boyd with Shawn Fowers finishing third.
Finishing first in the adult female category was Elisa Rogers with a time of 1:23:01.
Second in the women’s category is Jamie Carling, followed by a third place finish by Katie Player.
First in the adult team category are Hannah, David and Bill Boyle, who finished the course in 1:24:17.
The course started at the Monticello High School track with runners running along 200 South up the Latigo loop, past the Monticello Temple back to 200 South and up to the City Softball fields.
At the fields, athletes transitioned to bikes where they rode past Loyds lake to the end of the pavement and back twice.
Following the biking the racers hopped in the Monticello swimming pool where, 10 laps later, the exhausted athletes finished.