First full week of sports at Monticello High School

The Monticello High School volleyball team opened their 2020 season in Blanding on Thursday, August 20 against the long-time rival San Juan Lady Broncos.

Information about the game is scarce, but according to MHS Head Coach Tony Esplin, the C and JV teams won their games, but the varsity team dropped theirs 3-1 to the hosts.

The Lady Bucks were looking for their first win of the season when they hosted the Grand Lady Red Devils on Tuesday, August 25 in Monticello.

Boys golf

On Tuesday, August 18, the Monticello boys golf team traveled to Roosevelt with the hope of improving or maintaining their second-place position in Region 16.

The Bucks were just two shots behind North Sevier after week one.

However, the region team score deficit for MHS grew significantly wider at the Roosevelt Municipal Golf Course.

“We struggled this week,” said Buckaroo Head Coach Nathan Chamberlain. “Bailey
Walker did not attend the round, Boston Freestone had a great round, and Breckyn [Hoggard] played to his average.

“The others struggled with the conditions of the course and never could get into their rhythm,” explained Chamberlain.

Freestone led the team with a solid round of 86. Hoggard carded a 92 to add to the team total with Alec Christiansen shooting a 128, Cory Bunker a 129, and Darren Westcott a round of 141.

On the day, Monticello finished with a team score of 435 for a two-week total of 837.

The team score for the week dropped Monticello from second place in Region 16 to the fifth spot behind Altamont (777), North Sevier (781), Gunnison (817), and North Summit (835).

Individually, the Bucks have three golfers in the top five of the region. Boston Freestone is second with a 90-shot average, Bailey Walker sits third with a 91, and Hoggard is fourth with a 94.5.

With many of the top region golfers on the team, if Monticello can find a consistent fourth player to score well, they could conceivably make a run at the region title.

Monticello still has five more region matches to get back in the hunt for the region title. That effort starts on Wednesday, August 26 when the team travels to Sterling, UT to play the Palisades State Park Golf Course.

Football

After a jolting start to the season in Kanab, the MHS football team hopes to have a better showing this week when they make the short bus trip south to play the rival San Juan Broncos in Blanding this Friday, August 28 at 7 pm.

The Broncos won their opening-week contest 26-19 over Delta at home on August 14, but suffered a tough 49-28 loss to Summit Academy in Bluffdale this past Friday, August 21.

Monticello scrimmaged against themselves this past Friday in an attempt to somewhat simulate game conditions in their bye week.

Cross country

After a week off from racing, the Monticello cross country teams will travel to Altamont on Wednesday, August 26 for a Region 16 meet.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Monticello will have to rely heavily on region meets because most of their more significant races have been cancelled or localized in Colorado.

The Monticello Junior High runners have been especially hit hard, with all their scheduled races being cancelled except for the Loyds Lake Classic to be held in Monticello on September 4.  

Monticello will participate in the Grand Twilight Cross Country Meet in Moab on Friday, August 28 at the Moab Golf Course.

The race starts at 9 p.m. and the course will presumably be illuminated for the runners.

Monticello participated in a similar race in Durango several years ago and the kids seemed to enjoy the unique aspects of the race.

Cross country is very much a stat-driven sport, and one of us involved in this column (I’ll let the reader decide who), is very much a stat geek. They peruse MileSplit.com, Runnercard.com, and Athletic.net weekly and sometimes check times daily.

The past few weeks MileSplit.com has listed the top 1,000 incoming sophomore, junior, and senior boy and girl high schol runners in America based on the runners’ best times last year.

Monticello’s Adri Bird checked in at 281 on the incoming sophomore girl list for her 18:55 5K time clocked at the Nike SW Cross Nationals last year in Phoenix.

Another local who made the list is Grand’s Kylah Ricks, who is listed at 469 on the incoming senior girl list for her 18:50 5K time she ran last year at our very own Loyds Lake course in Monticello.

The two girls will face off twice in the next few weeks at the Grand Twilight race this week and the Loyds Lake Classic on September 4.