Lady Bucks get first Region volleyball win

The Monticello High School volleyball team traveled to Salina on Tuesday, September 22 to take on the North Sevier Lady Wolves looking for their first Region 16 win of the year.

The Lady Bucks came out flat, losing game one 25-12. The next two games weren’t much closer with Monticello losing 25-17 and 25-19 to drop the match 3-0.

The road team was dominated by the home team in every statistical category except for service return rating which Monticello won 1.6 to 1.5.

Individually, Athea Ford, Avery Shumway, and Kylie Rogers each ended the match with a 100 percent service percentage with Rogers recording an ace.

Elli Nielson and Saydi Young also had one ace each in the match. Ford led the team in hit percentage with a +.200.

Defensively, Saydee Adams and Rogers led the team with 2.0 service return ratings. Rogers also led the team with 1.5 blocks in the match; Young and Adams recorded one block each, and Ali Barry assisted on a block.

Once again, Ford led the team with ten digs followed closely by Nielson’s nine and Young’s eight. The loss dropped the Lady Bucks to 1-7 overall and 0-3 in Region 16 play.

Two nights later on Thursday, September 24, Region 16 leader and 2A North’s #2 Summit Lady Braves visited Monticello and left town with a straight set win, 25-10, 25-10, and 25-11.

The next night, on a rare Friday night game, the Lady Bucks hosted the Altamont Lady Longhorns in their third region match of the week.

Maybe the girls need to play on Friday more often as they quickly jumped on the visiting team to take game one 25-21.

Game two was all Monticello also, with the Lady Bucks winning 25-20. After MHS dropped game three 25-16 they righted the ship and won game four by the score of 25-21 to secure the team’s first Region 16 win of the season.

Monticello won the statistical categories of serve percentage, digs, and assists in the win to overcome a deficiency in errors.

Ford, Rogers, Whitney Knudsen, and Shumway all ended the match with a perfect service percentage. Ford, Nielson, Young, and Adams all had an ace each. Adams led the team with a +0.125 hit percentage.

On defense, Amy Lewis shined with a 3.0 service return rating followed by Nielson’s 1.97. Adams and Barry recorded a block each in the match with Young and Knudsen each recording an assisted block. Ford led the team with 30 digs followed by Shumway with 24 and Nielson with 21. 

The Lady Bucks are 2-8 overall and 1-4 in Region 16. They’ll travel to Duchesne this Friday, October 2 looking for their second region win in a row. The Lady Eagles are 7-5 and 3-1 respectively. Hopefully Friday night play will continue to bring some luck to MHS.

The next night, Monticello will visit the Altamont Lady Longhorns (7-7 / 1-4) on Saturday, October 3 looking for a season sweep of Altamont in another Region 16 tilt.

Golf 
On Monday, September 21 the Monticello golf team traveled to Price to play the Carbon County Country Club for the final Region 16 match of the season.

All the Buckaroos had to do was maintain their fourth place spot in the region to qualify for 2A state next week.

They accomplished that mission, finishing second on the day and remaining fourth in Region 16. For the season, Altamont won the region team championship averaging 371.4 shots per rounds.

They were followed by Gunnison Valley (378.6), North Sevier (381.9), and Monticello (387.6). North Summit finished fifth and missed the state cut with a 409.9.

On the day, the Monticello golfers had a great round, firing some of their lowest rounds of the season. Boston Freestone shot a season low 81 to lead the team.

He was followed by Breckyn Hoggard with a 92 and Bailey Walker who fired a 97. Garrett Larsen had a nice round, shooting a season low 101.

Darren Westcott continued his much-improved play, carding a 109 and Alec Christiansen followed that with a 115 which tied his low round of the season. 

To their credit, the team picked themselves up from a dismal week two to steadily improve and peak at the right time and qualify for state.

Individually, Monticello ended the region season with three golfers in the top ten region medalist play. Altamont’s Dicein Taylor led the way for Region 16, averaging 80.6 shots per round.

Monticello’s Boston Freestone had a great season and was the region runner-up with an 86.3 average. Buckaroo Bailey Walker claimed fourth overall on the season with a shot average of 91.7 and teammate Breckyn Hoggard grabbed sixth with an average of 93.1.

This week will be a fun one for the Buckaroos as they travel to the west side of Utah Lake to play the Talons Cove Golf Course in Saratoga Springs in the State of Utah 2A Golf Championships.

The Bucks will compete against qualifying Region 16 teams and golfers from Beaver, Rowland Hall, Waterford, St. Joseph’s, Kanab, APA Draper, Enterprise, and Wasatch Academy at the event, which began Tuesday, September 30 and continues through Thursday, October 1.

Football
It was with much anticipation that the Monticello football team headed north to Salt Lake City to play the independent 3A Judge Memorial Bulldogs on Friday, September 15.

Coming in, the teams were two of the lowest-ranked teams in the state. That said, the Bucks felt they had a great chance against Judge to collect their first win of the season.

It was another bumpy start for MHS when they gave up a touchdown in each of the first two quarters to trail 14-0 at the half.

Sadly, the Bucks had several good chances in the first half to get the ball into the end zone but dropped balls and miscues prevented that from happening.

In the third quarter, Monticello gave up another touchdown and it began to look extremely bleak for the visiting team.

But the Bucks rallied to answer the Bulldogs and finally got on the board with a nice scamper by quarterback Devon Hatch. They made the score 21-7 with a successful KC Benge PAT.

In the final quarter, the Monticello defense tightened up, shutting the Bulldogs out. The offense added another score when sophomore running back Kaden Honecker found the end zone on a nice carry.

After a failed PAT, Monticello tried to maintain momentum with an onside kick, but the attempt failed. The teams traded possessions for the remainder of the game and when the horn sounded the Bucks had fallen one score short 21-13.

Monticello drops to 0-6 overall and 0-2 in the 2A North with the loss. The Buckaroos will host the North Summit Braves (5-2 / 3-1) in a region contest this Friday, October 2.

North Summit beat Rich 38-0 in their most recent game and currently sits in second place in the 2A North. The Bucks are tied with Layton Christian for fifth in the region.

The weather should be very nice, so come out and support the boys as they try for their first win of the season. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

Cross country
The Monticello cross country teams had a light week with only one race in Duchesne Wednesday, September 23 against mainly Region 16 teams. Local basin teams Union (Roosevelt) and Uintah (Vernal) also attended the meet.

On an extremely fast course that produced personal bests for most Monticello runners, the varsity boys finished second behind 3A Union. The Bucks were outscored by the Cougars 62-30 while North Summit placed third with a score of 79.

Cory Bunker led the team and won the race, running the course in 15:30. Teammate Alan Pettit finished third overall with a time of 16:04. Eric Montague had a strong race, finishing 8th with a time of 17:12.

Other MHS finishers were Curtis Bunker (29th, 18:16), Jesse Pettit (39th, 19:22), Bailey Walker (41st, 19:38), Jacob Johnson (42nd, 19:41), Taw Robinson (51st, 20:02), Ryan Nielson (76th, 21:42), and Mahonri George (77th, 21:43).

Running shorthanded, the varsity girls didn’t have enough runners to place as a team, but again the race produced many personal bests. Lily Long led the team with a second-place finish in 19:32.

Teammate Kennedy Brewer placed 16th overall with a time of 22:44, Serra St. Clair ran a 23:00 to claim 20th place, and Hailey Gillette placed 46th with a time of 31:45.

In the last junior high meet of the year, the Monticello boys were caught stretching when the gun went off but still managed to have a great showing.

Kaden Pehrson claimed first place with his time of 9:04 followed by Aaron Gillette who placed 43rd with a time of 11:07. Ike Walker ran a 12:27 to place 77th and Lincoln Blanchard came home 94th with a 14:10 showing.

In the junior high girls race, Monticello runner Lily Burton led the team to a fourth-place finish with her time of 10:44.3. She barely edged out teammate Marah Long who claimed 11th place with a time of 10:44.4.

Other Monticello junior high runners who competed well were Ayla Carlson (15th, 10:53), Margot Johnson (36th, 12:39), Alexis Bailey (44th, 13:27), and Abigail Crowley (50th, 13:59).

This week is busy with the Buckaroo harriers visiting Blanding on Wednesday, September 30 for the John Thornton Invitational. They stay on the road for the Cedar City Invitational Friday, October 2 in a preview of the state course the 2A teams will run on October 21.