Lehi Sports
Pioneers top champs in first region golf tourney
Beky Beaton / Lehi Free Press
The gap may be closing.
The Lehi boys golf team placed ninth in last year’s 6A state tournament, with three other Region 3 heavyweights finishing in front of them. Corner Canyon was the gold trophy winner, Lone Peak came in second and American Fork claimed fifth place.
There was a whopping 53-point differential between the champions and the Pioneers in that two-day event. However, the Chargers graduated five players, the Knights four, the Cavemen two and Lehi just one.
In the first Region 3 tournament on Monday (Aug. 17) at the Mountain Dell Canyon Course in Parley’s Canyon east of Salt Lake City, the Pioneers finished just five points behind Lone Peak and beat the defending champs by three in an exciting race.
To no one’s surprise, the Knights won the event with a 282, but Lehi wasn’t far behind at 287 and surprised the Chargers at 290. American Fork tallied a 302 to just edge Skyridge at 303. These results suggest a fun competitive season ahead for the group.
The returning individual state gold medalist from Lone Peak, junior Blake Brown, won the event with a 68 (-4).
However, three other golfers finished just two strokes behind at 70 (-2), including Pioneer sophomores Jordan Ofahengaue and Simon Caceres. The third was Corner Canyon junior Drew Wilson, who finished fourth at 6A State last year.
Junior Adi Notoa carded an even-par 72 and sophomore Crue Harward rounded out the counted team scores for Lehi with a 75.
The other varsity players at this event for the Pioneers were junior Owen Combs at 77, junior Brodyn Pace at 78, senior Krew McMillen at 81 and senior Zane Haehl at 84. In the JV tournament, senior Jack Nelson posted a team-best score of 76.
“We’re proud to grab second place in our first Region 3 match of the year, especially with Simon and Jordan leading the way with under-par rounds and Adi finishing at even par,” said Coach Johnny Revill.
“We didn’t have our best team stuff today and knowing we left some shots out there will motivate us to get back to work for next week’s match,” he added.
The next Region 3 tournament is scheduled for Wednesday (Aug. 26) at the River Oaks Golf Course in Sandy.
