ST. GEORGE — After the final Region match on Wednesday at Sand Hollow, Crimson Cliffs finished first in the region. The most exciting aspect of the match was the race to finish second in the region, with Pine View, Hurricane and Desert Hills battling it out.
The Crimson Cliffs Mustangs had a season best score of 277 and were led by Ty Felts who shot a 65 on the day. Mustangs head coach Todd Meyer sees his team having a good shot at winning the state championship.
“We had five varsity players transfer, four from Desert Hills and then the No. 1 player from Pine View, so obviously that helped,” Meyer said. “Then we had two kids from Corner Canyon, the brothers, Ty and Zach Felts, move in. Good news is, next year my first five will be pretty solid, and that six spot will be pretty competitive. I give us a really good chance to win the state tournament. Obviously, I’m not calling us to win the state tournament, but I would say if you’re a betting man, it’d be a good bet.”
People have called Crimson Cliffs the Golden State Warriors of high school boys golf, and coach Meyer says he feels like Steve Kerr.
“‘Here guys, let’s go do this,’ and they just go do whatever. They shoot low scores” Meyer said. “I’m a golf pro, and I honestly would play fifth on this team, and I’d have to battle to stay there. I mean that’s how good they are, and I’m not the greatest player, but a golf pro that plays pretty competitively. I would have trouble qualifying on my own team. We don’t have a bad day, I mean, I can have a couple guys have a bad day, but the whole team doesn’t have a bad day at the same time.”
Senior Luke Shone was named the player of the year with three first place finishes and an average score of 70.14, which was the best in the region.
Pine View came up big after being one stroke out of second place coming into the match. They moved up and secured their spot at second in the region. Coach Matt Wieland is looking forward to the state tournament next week in Provo.
“We’re looking forward to the cooler weather, I can promise you that,” Wieland said. “We set some goals early in the season of what we wanted this season to be, and we didn’t have any doubts that we would make it to the state tournament. We’re right at our goal for how to finish region. As far as looking into next week, our No. 1 goal is obviously to make it into the second day and finish well. We’ve got an extremely young team, so we’re going to go get the experience there. If we can make it to day two and maybe make a little bit of noise, that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
Pine View will be a greater threat next season, as they have four sophomores and a junior returning for next year. Those four sophomores will be with the team for the next two years.
“I don’t even think we have begun to see the potential in these kids yet, and that’s really exciting looking forward,” Wieland said. “I think next year we’ll be right in the mix, because they’re (Crimson Cliffs) losing a lot of seniors. We’ll be them next, next year. Honestly, I don’t think we’ve actually even come close to our potential this season, so to know that not playing our best can result in a second place finish, you better believe we’ll be in the mix next year.”
Hurricane fell to third behind Pine View, but head coach Mark Christensen is not too worried about where they finish in the standings.
“We’re okay with fourth place,” Christensen said. “We’re okay going in because we know we’re right there with Desert Hills, we’re right there with Pine View. It’s not like we’re going to kill ourselves for being in fourth place, that’s still pretty good.”
With regard to the Tigers’ trip to the state tournament, coach Christensen doesn’t really know how good the teams up north are, but they have the same goal as Pine View — make the second day.
“Going up north, we could be completely out or completely in,” Christensen said. “We know that we have to score under about 220 on that first day to make the cut. That’s just our goal, we got to make the second day of the state tournament.”
Desert Hills finished the day in fourth place, with a team score of 337. The Thunder were led by Merick Johnson who shot a 79 on the day.
The state tournament will be held at Talons Cove golf course in Saratoga Springs next Wednesday and Thursday.
Meyer said he is trying to organize an all-state tournament after the state tournament, taking the first and second place teams from 3A, 4A, 5A and 6A. It’d be a one-day tournament to see who the best team in the state is.
Final Region 9 standings (points)
- Crimson Cliffs 64.
- Pine View 48 (tie breaker w/Hurricane was strokes).
- Hurricane 48.
- Desert Hills 47.
- Snow Canyon 30.5.
- Canyon View 21.
- Cedar 20.
- Dixie 9.5.
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