Lacrosse
The No. 25 Utah lacrosse team spent its spring break in Southern California, but it wasn’t there for fun and sun. The Utes were there to play three games in four days.
Utah started the trip against Claremont College (5-3) on Thursday in Claremont. The Utes got off to a slow start, trailing 6-1 at the end of the first quarter, but went back and forth with Claremont throughout the second and third quarters to pull the score to 10-5. That’s as close as the U got to winning. Claremont came out fired up in the fourth quarter and scored five goals while the Utes failed to score and lost 15-5. Junior attackman Matt Qualey had one goal and one assist.
“Claremont is a hungry team, and they took it to us,” Utah head coach Rich Levi said.
On Friday, Utah faced off against No. 3 Chapman (9-1) in Orange County. Utah came into the game as an underdog but managed to hold Chapman scoreless in the second quarter, resulting in a 4-2 halftime lead for Chapman. The Utes couldn’t keep up in the second half, though. Qualey and junior attackman Ryan Watts both scored two goals, but the Utes lost 14-6. Freshman Andrew Martinelli stopped 21 goals, which is a career high.
“We were huge underdogs against Chapman, but we hung tough,” Levi said.
Utah hoped to leave California with at least one win but failed to do so on Sunday as No. 13 Cal Poly-San Lois Obispo (5-3) proved to be too much for the Utes. Utah was up 4-3 at halftime but allowed Cal Poly to go on a big run, leaving Utah with a 10-8 loss.
“Each game we play, we are getting better,” Levi said. “Hopefully we gained some momentum this weekend to carry with us to Colorado next weekend.”
Utah (3-6) will travel to Colorado to face the No. 10 Buffaloes (1-1) and No. 2 Colorado State (6-2) on March 28 and 29.
Golf
The Puttin’ Utes finished third on Sunday at the Ron Moore Invitational in Goodyear, Ariz.
Utah posted two consecutive rounds of 285 on Friday and Saturday and followed up with a blistering 281 on Sunday. Utah entered Sunday in eighth place, but made up ground following senior Dustin Pimm. Pimm shot a 67 in the final round of play to finish tied for 14th in the individual event.
Kansas State won the tournament with an 845 and Ohio State came in a close second, shooting an 847. Sixteen teams competed in the event which was hosted by Denver University.
Junior Chance Cota shot a 68 on Friday and two even-par rounds to finish the tournament tied for 14th individually. Senior Nic Larson shot rounds of 74, 71 and 69, respectively, which was good enough to tie for 20th.
Senior Chris Gresh shot rounds of 77, 69 and 74, respectively, to finish the tournament six strokes over par.
Senior Steve Broker shot rounds of 71, 77 and 73 to finish seven strokes over-par.
Boise State finished in fourth place, but had the top two golfers of the event. Troy Merritt of Boise State won the individual title for the second straight year.
Utah will travel to Arizona again on April 7-8 to compete in the Cowboy Classic in Scottsdale.
Originally printed in The Daily Utah Chronicle on March 24, 2008
