Due to the length of this weeks content we had to divide the article into two.
Good morning Utah lacrosse fans. As I sit down to write this report, I can't help but reflect on how different this season has been so far compared to the previous years. The weather has been quite unpredictable, with snow, ice, cold winds, rain, and occasional sunshine. With only a few weeks into the spring season, it's hard to know where each team and athlete stand in the respective rankings. Wins and losses don't always reflect the true talent level of each team and athlete. Monitoring this year's stats, for the boys’ state leaders, we have Junior Gage Wright from Roy High with 24 goals and 34 points, Junior Austin Taylor from Brighton High with 17 assists, and Junior Luke Richardson from Pleasant Grove High with 64 ground balls. As for the girls' state leaders, we have Sophomore Cecelia Walton from Viewmont High with 34 goals and 37 points, Junior Sammy McMaster from Skyline High with 13 assists, and Junior Ava Andreasen from Box Elder with 48 ground balls. These are athletes that we haven’t heard much about until now, as they are leading the state in their respective categories.
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UHSAA Academic All-State Athletes
Coaches, it’s time to reach out to your Athletic Directors to ensure your athletes are entered for the Utah High School Athletic Association Academic All-State Athletes. Opened March 19th – April 18th
What does it mean to be an Academic All-State Athlete? It’s an honorable recognition for student-athletes that excel in the classroom and on the field. Athletes are chosen by their athletic ability and academic proficiency. This award is highly respected as these students are picked out of 10,000 students that are involved in high school lacrosse. To be eligible you must uphold the academics, playing ability but also you must be a 2024 senior.
ULR Coaches Poll
In this week's ULR Coaches poll, we shine a light on our head coaches. They serve as the leaders of the teams, and we acknowledge their valuable contributions to the game.
No. 1 Olympus – The Titans have reclaimed the top spot in this week's coaches' poll. Leading the troops at Olympus is Head Coach Zana Spratling Brand. Zana, who played high school lacrosse here in Utah, began her lacrosse journey during her sophomore year. "It's been amazing to see how much the sport has grown in Utah over the years," says Coach Zana. "I'm thrilled about the opportunities that school sanctioning has brought for my players, raising the level of play and gaining national recognition." Coach Zana continued her lacrosse career at the University of Utah, where she learned valuable lessons from her head coach, Glee Corsetti. Former teammate Hannah Thatcher is who Zana thanks for pushing her while playing together and introducing her to coaching at Olympus High School.
Recap on Olympus games this past week: Olympus faced off with an out-of-state opponent, Foothill. Olympus fell to Foothill (CA), 10-5. Senior Midfielder Hannah Nelson has been awarded player of the game. “Hannah was hustling all over the field and created opportunities for her team with 1 assist and 1 ground ball. She also created possessions for Olympus with 2 draw controls. Congrats Hannah!” – Coach Zana. Concluding thoughts against Foothill “We love playing high level lacrosse and Foothill (CA) is high level! They came out strong, scoring 5-0 in the first quarter. Olympus crept back up, holding them 5-5 the rest of the time. We learned resilience and what holes we need to work on all over the field. Thanks, Foothill, for coming out and raising the bar in Utah!” Olympus' second game this past week was against Bingham where they won, 20-5.
No. 2 Park City – The Miners take second in this week’s coaches poll. Spearheading the Miners is Head Coach Mikki Clayton. Clayton joined the Miners coaching staff in 2018. After excelling as a JV coach for one year, she was promoted to Varsity assistant coach in 2020, and by 2021, she was offered the position of Head Coach. The history of Clayton's lacrosse story started in the DC Metro area, where she played for St. Stephens & St. Agnes school, where she had to use the old school wooden sticks until her graduating year. She continued her lacrosse journey at the University of New Hampshire (D1 NCAA). Clayton is passionate about her role as a Miner, supporting all her athletes in the game they love.
Recap on Park City games this past week: The Miners hosted the out-of-town Foothill (CA) where the Miners lost 12-6. Park City appointed Senior Midfielder Charlie Lacobelli as the player of the game, because “Chuck gathered 6 ground balls, 4 caused turnovers. She led our defensive unit and the midfielders. She really battled against Foothill and played excellent 1v1 defense” states Coach Clayton. Final thoughts from the Miners “Tough loss. Park City was well matched against Foothill, but too many penalties led to playing man down for a significant portion of the second half and allowed Foothill to make a scoring run that we couldn't dig ourselves out of. Great learning experience for the team. Always great to play out of state competition!” The second game of the week was at No. 7 of this week’s Coaches’ Poll, Lone Peak, where the Miners were victorious with a 19-2 win. Park City honors Junior goalie Marcella Woolley as the player of the game, explaining how “Marcella had a shutout in the second, third, and fourth quarter!”
No. 3 Mountain Ridge – It’s no surprise the Sentinels are holding strong in the number three spot for the third week in a row as Coach Angie Maughan continues to steer Mountain Ridge to a 4-2 season record. Having played for Orem during her high school years, Maughan ranked #1 in state, was a recognized all-state athlete, and was a U19 national team player. Continuing to make an impact in the Utah lacrosse community, she has a combined coaching experience spanning 14 years across various Utah teams including Orem, Timpanogos, Lone Peak, Bingham and Mountain Ridge where her teams took the D2 State Championship (Timpanogos 2010 and Lone Peak 2012) and 6A State Championship (Mountain Ridge 2022). Beyond her player and coach experience, Coach Maughan has continued to dedicate her time back to lacrosse by becoming qualified as a level 3 referee in women’s lacrosse.
Recap on Mountain Ridge games this past week: The Sentinels started their week playing away against Lone Peak on Tuesday (3/19) where they came out on top with a winning score of 12-5. Junior attack and midfielder, Taya Chalk (#57), was selected as the player of the game and put multiple stats on record including her three ground balls, caused turnover, goal, three assists and 40% draw control percentage. Ending the week and continuing right into their weekend, Mountain Ridge traveled out-of-state to San Diego, CA where they secured a win against Mt. Carmel on Friday (3/22); final score 12-7. Before heading back to Utah, they played in Carlsbad, CA on Saturday (3/23) where they lost against non-region La Costa Canyon Mavericks by a score of 19-7.
No. 4 Bingham – After a tough week of games, Bingham moves up a position in the Coaches’ Poll with Coach Courtney McCabe leading the Miners through non-region game learning opportunities and success in their region games. But, let me give you the lowdown on Coach Courtney McCabe. She's been leading the charge at Bingham since 2022, where she has been named the USA Lacrosse Coach of the Year in 2023, and snagged the Region 3 Coach of the Year title that same year. Prior to coaching after high school, Coach McCabe was playing at Brighton High before lacrosse was even sanctioned, graduating in 2018. Talk about a lacrosse powerhouse!
Check this out - she's not just about coaching high school lacrosse. She’s been in the lacrosse game for a while, coaching the Wasatch LC from 2020 to 2021 and even landing the US Club Team of the Year award in 2021. She's got a knack for turning teams into winners. Plus, she’s a Level II Official/Certified Trainer and observer. But it's not just about the accolades for Coach McCabe because she's been there, done that - playing midfield for Westminster University from 2019 to 2022, even captaining the team in her final year, while obtaining her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry.
Recap on Bingham games this past week: With a busy week last week playing in three games, the Bingham Miners found themselves one win, against Copper Hills, and two losses, against Brighton and Olympus. First up, while playing under home lights on Monday, the Miners saw a 7-10 loss against Brighton where junior, Aspen Little (#1), was nominated as MVP of the game scoring 4 of their 7 goals. With a game the day after on Tuesday (3/19), the Miners celebrated a home win against conference opponent, Copper Hill Grizzlies, by a score of 11-2 where the game MVP was senior Brenna Miller (#21), scoring 2 goals, making 2 assists, picking up 7 ground balls and most memorably, making 4 CTs. Ending their games last week to a loss (20-5) playing the non-conference Olympus Titans, away, on Friday (3/22). Coach McCabe has selected attacker Chloe Arambula (#14) as the game MVP, recognizing her outstanding performance and invaluable contribution to the team's success. Ending the week with a 4-2 record, Coach McCabe expresses, “Overall our non-region games have been an awesome learning opportunity for our girls to continue playing together and playing high-paced games. Looking forward to jumping into region games when we return from spring break!”
No. 5 Davis – The Davis Darts celebrate climbing up a position this week with Coach Makenzie Hekking leading the team to another victory this week. Coach Hekking has an impressive lacrosse background where, as a sophomore in high school, started playing at Woods Cross because they were the nearest school with a team until she was able to be on the first girl’s lacrosse team at Davis in 2009. As a walk-on starting goalie at Westminster College (now University), Hekking started all four years playing in the national semifinals in Colorado Springs her freshman year, obtaining academic All-American all four years at Westminster, and team MVP recognition her sophomore year. After continuing her lacrosse career post graduation as a Westminster volunteer assistant coach for three years, Hekking dedicated her time to pursuing her Master’s degree. In 2019, she resumed coaching by helping with a 7/8 grade team and later became head coach at Davis High School, leading the team to two region championships and three state quarterfinals in the past three years.
Not only is this team led by a lacrosse powerhouse, but their entire coaching staff is stacked with talent: John Bunch (played HS lacrosse in Boston; coaching at Davis for 5 years), Devin William (coaching Davis JV for 2 years; oversees Davis County youth programs), Wayne Rose (been around the sport for the last 15 years due to his kids playing; coaching JV at Davis for 2 years).
Recap on Davis games this past week: Playing a home game against Ridgeline this past Tuesday as their only game this week, the Darts secured a solid win of 14-3. Up 5-2 at the half, the Ridgeline goalie was giving the Dart offense a challenge until they were able to regroup and start playing their game after the half. Winning the possession game, controlling 60% of the draws, they had 8 athletes making goals (Esther Facer and Kerri Norton each making 3 each). With defense on their A-game, senior goalie, Jacey Compton, had 4 saves for a 57.1% save rate. Senior defense and midfielder, Gracie Rose (#34), found herself as MVP due to her instrumental part in their win contributing all over the field - winning 4 of 6 draw attempts (66.7%), 4 draw controls personally, 2 interceptions within the midfield giving the Darts offense the ball back, 7 ground balls, and 1 assist during one of the offensive shifts she led.
No. 6 Riverton – Congratulations to Riverton for securing a well-deserved position in the top 10 of the Coaches’ Poll after an undefeated season thus far (4-0) led by head coach, Joey Dorton. Coach Dorton has been steering the lady Silverwolves towards success with plenty of experience, skill and lacrosse IQ. After graduating from Timpview High in 2017 where she played lacrosse all four years, she continued lacrosse at the University of Utah. From here, her coaching skills took a new direction towards competition teams for the summer and fall seasons during 2018-2022, where she was also the JV coach at Skyline High for two years during this time. Since leaving Skyline in 2020, Coach Dorton has been dedicated to building the Riverton Girls Lacrosse program and continues to hone her personal skills playing for the Utah Olympians and other various teams around the USA, plus being a certified Utah referee.
Recap on Riverton games this past week: Riverton’s season has started to pick up with two games this past week against Corner Canyon and Copper Hills. Securing a home win on Tuesday against the Chargers (20-13), sophomore Maggie Bird (#6) was a powerhouse midfielder with 4 goals, 4 assists, 4 ground balls and 3 CTs, earning her game MVP. Continuing their week’s winning streak, the Silverwolves beat the Grizzlies under home lights on Thursday (20-1). Highlighting Kaitlyn Davenport’s (#13) midfield expertise with a 75% draw control which ultimately determined the pace of the game, named her game MVP.
No. 7 Lone Peak – Lone Peak felt their losses last week, dropping three spots in the Coaches’ Poll. But! - Have no fear, because experienced head coach, Weslie Lundell, is leading the Knights to a successful season. Having played at Lone Peak herself from 2009-2012, she continued her lacrosse career at USU, where Lundell was awarded MVP of attack three different times and helped to lead her team to its first appearance at the club lacrosse nationals tournament in program history. From here, Lundell explains how “coaching was something that just fell into my lap” when back in 2014, she did a brief coaching stint for LP. She stayed in touch with the Parent Board over the years, just in case they needed assistance, and when they reached out to her, she ended up being hired while she was at the hospital in labor with her first child! When asked to share a fun fact, Coach Lundell explains,”I don’t have many unique traits about me..I can’t whistle, I’m not double jointed, just pretty boring! But a fun fact is that I almost died in Hurricane Fran when I was six and living in Durham, NC.!”
Starting out as a player herself, transitioning to coaching, Coach Lundell has also successfully started her own club lacrosse program, saw a 2nd place Division 2 finish 2021 while coaching Lone Peak, began as a Force coach in 2022, made it to the 2022 6A semi-finals, was the 2022 Utah Nationals coach, 2022 Region Coach of the Year, and 2023 State Champions. Lone Peak has a lot of knowledge and talent between head Coach Weslie Lundell and her coaching staff to position the Knights for success this season!
Recap on Lone Peak games this past week: Tough week taking on two losses. First game on Tuesday versus Mountain Ridge saw a final score of 12-5. Junior Simone Winger (#5) was called out as MVP due to her changing the pace of the game, attacking the goal when needed. Coach Lundell reflects on this game expressing “We learned everyone has a bad day and you just have to get back to work and focus on the next”. Second game of the week was at home on Thursday against the Park City Miners, ultimately facing a loss of 19-2. As a key midfielder in this game, Sadie Neuenschwander (#6) found the MVP award due to being a play maker on attack, incredible midfield defense and demonstrating strong lacrosse defensive IQ. Lundell, always holding a positive outlook, expresses how “this was actually a great game! The score doesn’t reflect how the game was actually played. The girls played a very clean game, ground balls were contested heavily, we won multiple draws…we just fell to the crease roll a few too many times but come next game, we’ll be ready!”
No. 8 Fremont – Falling a spot in the Coaches’ Poll this week, Fremont still holds a winning record of 5-1 with Coach Seth Jones leading the way. Having grown up in Payson, Jones is a Utah native even after moving to New Mexico at age 17. Back in 2014, Coach Jones and his wife kicked off a non-profit lacrosse club in Albuquerque, NM so their son (who's now one of Fremont's assistant coaches) could play, and sure enough, Coach Jones started coaching their club team until their move back to Utah in 2019 for a German teaching position at Fremont High. While starting his coaching career with the boys’ teams, Coach Jones transitioned to being head coach of the Fremont Girls’ Lacrosse team in 2021, being named Region 1 Coach of the Year. During his time leading both boys and girls teams, his coaching philosophy has emerged to highlight these four areas: be nice, work hard and make mistakes, trust your team, and have fun!
Recap on Fremont games this past week: The Silverwolves had a busy week winning all three of their games! Starting the week away against Box Elder on Monday, Fremont took a 16-6 win where senior Raina Button (#1) was named as game MVP with highlights including her 2 CTs and 62% draw control. Continuing last week’s winning streak, Fremont defeated Uintah on Thursday at home, 30-4. Senior Attacker, Arwen Higley (#19) took the MVP title against Uintah where she fought skillfully for her 5 goals, 3 assists, 71% shot percentage, and 5 ground balls. Wrapping up their week with a Thursday win while on the road against American Fork, final score 26-1. Of the 26 goals Fremont scored, senior Jensie Jeffries made 10 of them, with 4 assists towards the remaining 16 goals scored.
No. 9 Brighton – The Bengals take a fall from position 8 to position 9 in the Coaches’ Poll this week. The coaching staff for the Brighton ladies, led by head coach Melissa Nash, consists of 8 coaches with a cumulative 101 years of coaching experience. Of the eight, three coaches played for Brighton High School themselves (Chelsea Worth, Mary Burns and Ryan Coombs and four coaches played at Bingham High (Veronica Meadows, McKaye McMullin, Annie Reynolds and Kayla Miller), with five of the right playing in college. Head Coach Nash is in her 12th year of coaching high school lacrosse, with it being her 11th year at Brighton. Having played for Olympus in high school then continuing on to play at BYU, Coach Nash has been coaching ever since her college graduation. Reminiscing on her lacrosse story, Nash describes how she has “loved watching lacrosse grow in the state! I remember playing in the early 2000s and dreaming of the day we could ride a bus as a team to games, play on the school’s field and be recognized in the news. Look at Utah lacrosse now!”
Recap on Brighton’s games this past week: Beginning the week against Bingham on Monday for an away game, Brighton took home a win with a final score of 10-7. Coach Nash expresses how “We finally feel like we played real Bengal lacrosse and played fast and free. We have a young team this year - losing the majority of our starters last year. I'm so proud of our younger players for stepping up!” Senior leader, Alex Heugly (#23) was seen as MVP by Coach Nash with her 8 draw controls, 3 goals and 4 ground balls. Rounding out last week with an away game at Syracuse on Friday.
No. 10 Farmington – Holding strong in their 10th position of the ULR Coaches’ Poll, Farmington’s head coach, Chris MacAulay, is their key to success. Having been born into a military family, Coach MacAulay grew up mostly in Northern VA close to D.C. following in his father’s footsteps by joining the Air Force via United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) and spending 22+ years serving. Lacrosse is actually what got Coach into USAFA, because he got involved with lacrosse while he played on his high school team that won the State Championship 3 of his 4 years, MacAulay started as a freshman for the Air Force Academy. Here is where he led his team in points 3 of 4 years, concluding with being named captain his senior year, finishing third in the nation in terms of points per game and being selected to play in the collegiate all-star game.
After graduating and joining the AirForce, Coach MacAulay stuck around the Academy, taking on the role of head coach for the JV team and assisting with the Varsity. While stationed in Germany, he decided to give it a shot and ended up making the German National Lacrosse Team. That led him all the way to Australia for the 2002 World Championships, where he topped the tournament in points per game.
When his kids got into lacrosse, MacAulay jumped back into coaching, starting at the youth level and now working with high schoolers. Since his daughter's high school didn't have a lacrosse program, she played at Weber HS her freshman year, and Coach Chris pitched in as a volunteer coach. After that, he landed the head coach gig at Farmington HS, where his daughter joined the team after transferring.
Recap on Farnington’s games this past week: With their record now at 2-2, the Phoenix won while playing Wasatch at home on Monday where the final score was 1-17. Despite returning from injury and playing limited minutes, Hailey Larsen dominated at the draw, granting her team ample possession time to execute offensive strategies. Meanwhile, Kate Carter's shift from defense to midfield was notable, as she stood out with four goals. However, game MVP was awarded to junior goalie, Elle Erickson (#21), who faced 11 shots on goal while only letting in one. Not to mention, Erickson intercepted 3 passes and had 6 ground balls - talk about some goalie stats! Ending the week, Farmington took a win against the Ridgeline Riverhawks on Wednesday (13-2). MVP of the Ridgeline game was named junior midfielder Hailey Larsen (#24) due to her dominance in the midfield controlling 15 of 18 draws, scoring 3 goals and chipped in 2 assists.
Women’s College
University of Utah: The lady Utes went up against Utah State University on Saturday, securing a 20-6 victory. Players to mention are Olivia Lowe (goalie) with a 62% save percentage, Lilah Sage leading the Utes in ground balls (8), Masen Carey scoring 6 of the 20 goals followed by Nyah Allen with 5 goals. To really see team chemistry in action, assist stats should be soaring which was achieved by the U on Saturday, totaling 10 assists, with Masen Carey and Nyah Allen leading the way. This team's resilience, strategic prowess, and individual standout performances culminated in a well-deserved victory on the lacrosse field.
University of Utah Next Matchup: Sat Mar 29 - 6:00 PM MDT vs Brigham Young
Utah State: Although facing a loss on Saturday of 6-20 to the University of Utah for their last home game of the season, Utah State brought the numbers with a team of 21 field players and one goalie. Graysen Elisworth was able to lead her team through some victorious attack on goal, with 4 goals and 1 ground ball, alongside Lauren Siri who got 2 goals to the back of the cage and 2 ball pickups.
Utah State Next Matchup: Sat Mar 29 - 5:00 PM MDT vs Utah Valley at Utah Valley
Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University : Bye week.
Westminster Women’s Lacrosse
The Westminster Women's Lacrosse team kicked off their 2024 season with a series of challenging matchups. They faced off against #11 Embry-Riddle University (Fla.) on March 9th, resulting in a tough loss with a final score of 3-23. Despite the setback, they showed resilience and determination. The following day, they went head-to-head against #10 Flagler College, ending with another defeat with a score of 7-17. However, the team continued to showcase their skills and perseverance. Their Florida tour concluded on March 12th against #23 Florida Tech, where they faced a formidable opponent and fell short with a final score of 1-19. Despite these losses, the team demonstrated their resilience and determination to bounce back. They secured a remarkable victory against Colorado State University Pueblo on March 16th, winning with a score of 14-3. With their spirits high and determination intact, the Westminster Women's Lacrosse team is poised for a successful season ahead.
Fort Lewis College Mar 25 (Mon) Durango, CO 1:00 P.M. (MDT)