Ute briefs (2/11)
Issue date: 2/11/08 Section: Sports
U track comes up short at Mountain State Games
Although the Utah women's track team came away from the Mountain State Games with some great individual performances, the Utes were unable to place first in any of the scheduled events.
"It was an okay meet for us," Utah head coach Kyle Kepler said. "We were a little more inconsistent than we should be, although we have been battling illness and injury and did rest a few kids."
Ashley Patterson earned a personal best in the triple jump with a leap of 38-9.25 and placed second in the 400-meter with a time of 2 minutes, 13.14 seconds.
Other Utes that finished with personal best performances were Josefin Berg and Chelsea Shapard. Berg placed second in the weight throw with a toss of 55-03 while Shapard placed second in the 800-meter invitational, clocking in at 2:13.14.
Next up for the Utes will be the Iowa State Classic from Feb. 15 to Feb. 16.
James Boehly
Depleted ski team places fifth
Competing without several of their top skiers, the Utah ski team finished fifth with 422 total points in the New Mexico State Invitational.
Many of the Utes' top skiers did not compete this weekend as they chose to rest up for the NCAA West Regionals on Feb. 22-23.
In the men's slalom, Taque Thorson lead the way for the team as his first place finish helped the Utes move from sixth to fifth in the final standings.
In the women's slalom, Eva Huckova led the Utes with 24 points as her seventh place finish also contributed to the team moving up in the standings.
"The goal wasn't the team score this weekend but to ski aggressive, take chances and experiment a bit," Director of Skiing Eli Brown said. "It's time now to regroup and prepare for the post season."
James Boehly
Lacrosse tunes up with preseason action
The Utah men's lacrosse team was in action Friday night at the Spence-Eccles Field House against Utah Valley State College in a preseason scrimmage.
"Preseason games serve as a chance to get the starters to play together against good competition," Utah head coach Rich Levi said. "These games also give us a good chance to play reserves and see which ones can help the team right away."
In the first half of the scrimmage, Utah played all its starters as if the game had counted. Freshman goalie Drew Martinelli played well and had many big saves. Starting defenders, Grant Matsuura, Clint English and Jake Vadeboncoeur held the UVSC attack to only one goal in the first half.
"Our guys played well the first half, and we were able to get a lot of ground balls, and we cleared the ball very well," Levi said. "Our juniors and seniors preformed very well, just like we expected them to do."
The second half was played by most of the Utah reserves.
Chandler Sehlmeier, who was injured last fall, played well and will help the Utah midfield with his talent.
Utah will play its inner-city rival, Westminster, in another preseason scrimmage this Friday at the Spence-Eccles Field House at 7 p.m.
Tim Haslam
Men's tennis struggles through weekend
The Utah men's tennis team had a difficult time on their Bay Area three-game swing over the weekend. Friday's match against Saint Mary's saw both teams riding a two-game winning streak, but the Gaels continued their winning ways over the No. 70 Utes with a 5-2 victory.
Senior Miron Mann and sophomore Timmy Allin pulled out two close victories for the Utes. Allin and Wes Hancock won the Utes' only doubles match of the day, defeating Achim Christner and Gerald Ellison (8-4).
"We did not play up to our capabilities and strengths," assistant coach Roeland Brateanu said. "If you don't do that, you will not beat a good team -- it's just that simple."
The Utes took the 15-minute drive from Saint Mary's to UC Berkeley for their match Saturday. Needless to say, the short drive didn't change results from the previous day. Facing the No. 28 Golden Bears, the Utes once again fell 5-2. Senior Zach Ganger bounced back from an off-day against Saint Mary's to provide the Utes with an early lead with a victory in singles and doubles with Mann.
Christopher Kamrani
U women's tennis team
The Utes were well prepared for their showdown with the No. 42 Boise State Broncos, but preparation wasn't enough, and the U fell 4-3 on Saturday.
Seniors Elizabeth Ferris and Emily Kwok started off the day at the top of the doubles order to face No. 40 Polina Kokoulina and Pichittra Thongdach. The Utah duo served up the upset of the day, rallying to defeat Kokoulina and Thongdach, 8-5.
The strengths for the day were the Utes and their doubles-teams. Leigh Walsh and Evgenia Kryuchkova stole the second doubles match of the day, besting Jana Mackova and Laura Baum.
Problems struck once single-matches commenced. Despite Ferris and Kryuchkova sending Kokoulina and Thongdach to losses early, the Broncos were able to rally off three consecutive singles victories which lead to their 4-3 victory over the Utes.
Christopher Kamrani
Two out of three isn't bad for hockey team
Greg Swenson and his teammates are feeling a little sore after playing three games in three nights for the U hockey club.
Still, no one was complaining after the Utes took two of those three, beating Mesa State College on both Thursday and Friday while falling to BYU on Saturday.
Swenson and defender Charles German scored two goals apiece on Thursday to lead the Skatin' Utes past the Mavericks, 6-1. The other two goals came from Matt Komma and Eric Rees. Rees scored his goal off a rare penalty shot.
"(Mesa St.) is a good team, but we just outplayed them," Swenson said. "We passed it around and pretty much played our game."
On Friday, the team's leading scorer, Mike Vrtis, scored a hat trick, and five others scored to give the Utes an 8-4 victory.
"Mike didn't score the night before, so he wanted to make up for it on Friday," Swenson said.
Saturday's showdown with archrival and the West region's No. 2-ranked BYU didn't go as smoothly for Utah.
BYU's Ben Shugart and Kasey Welsh each scored twice, and the Cougars run away with an 8-1 victory. Swenson scored the U's only goal by rerouting an Elliot Faulkner shot into the net late in the third period. Faulkner was credited with the assist.
"It was one of those games where no matter how hard we played, we just couldn't get it done," said goalie Jason Petho, who minded the night on Friday. "The officiating wasn't great and we caught some bad breaks."
The Utes head to Logan Friday to take on Utah St. before returning home on Saturday for a rematch with BYU.
Jason Peterson
Although the Utah women's track team came away from the Mountain State Games with some great individual performances, the Utes were unable to place first in any of the scheduled events.
"It was an okay meet for us," Utah head coach Kyle Kepler said. "We were a little more inconsistent than we should be, although we have been battling illness and injury and did rest a few kids."
Ashley Patterson earned a personal best in the triple jump with a leap of 38-9.25 and placed second in the 400-meter with a time of 2 minutes, 13.14 seconds.
Other Utes that finished with personal best performances were Josefin Berg and Chelsea Shapard. Berg placed second in the weight throw with a toss of 55-03 while Shapard placed second in the 800-meter invitational, clocking in at 2:13.14.
Next up for the Utes will be the Iowa State Classic from Feb. 15 to Feb. 16.
James Boehly
Depleted ski team places fifth
Competing without several of their top skiers, the Utah ski team finished fifth with 422 total points in the New Mexico State Invitational.
Many of the Utes' top skiers did not compete this weekend as they chose to rest up for the NCAA West Regionals on Feb. 22-23.
In the men's slalom, Taque Thorson lead the way for the team as his first place finish helped the Utes move from sixth to fifth in the final standings.
In the women's slalom, Eva Huckova led the Utes with 24 points as her seventh place finish also contributed to the team moving up in the standings.
"The goal wasn't the team score this weekend but to ski aggressive, take chances and experiment a bit," Director of Skiing Eli Brown said. "It's time now to regroup and prepare for the post season."
James Boehly
Lacrosse tunes up with preseason action
The Utah men's lacrosse team was in action Friday night at the Spence-Eccles Field House against Utah Valley State College in a preseason scrimmage.
"Preseason games serve as a chance to get the starters to play together against good competition," Utah head coach Rich Levi said. "These games also give us a good chance to play reserves and see which ones can help the team right away."
In the first half of the scrimmage, Utah played all its starters as if the game had counted. Freshman goalie Drew Martinelli played well and had many big saves. Starting defenders, Grant Matsuura, Clint English and Jake Vadeboncoeur held the UVSC attack to only one goal in the first half.
"Our guys played well the first half, and we were able to get a lot of ground balls, and we cleared the ball very well," Levi said. "Our juniors and seniors preformed very well, just like we expected them to do."
The second half was played by most of the Utah reserves.
Chandler Sehlmeier, who was injured last fall, played well and will help the Utah midfield with his talent.
Utah will play its inner-city rival, Westminster, in another preseason scrimmage this Friday at the Spence-Eccles Field House at 7 p.m.
Tim Haslam
Men's tennis struggles through weekend
The Utah men's tennis team had a difficult time on their Bay Area three-game swing over the weekend. Friday's match against Saint Mary's saw both teams riding a two-game winning streak, but the Gaels continued their winning ways over the No. 70 Utes with a 5-2 victory.
Senior Miron Mann and sophomore Timmy Allin pulled out two close victories for the Utes. Allin and Wes Hancock won the Utes' only doubles match of the day, defeating Achim Christner and Gerald Ellison (8-4).
"We did not play up to our capabilities and strengths," assistant coach Roeland Brateanu said. "If you don't do that, you will not beat a good team -- it's just that simple."
The Utes took the 15-minute drive from Saint Mary's to UC Berkeley for their match Saturday. Needless to say, the short drive didn't change results from the previous day. Facing the No. 28 Golden Bears, the Utes once again fell 5-2. Senior Zach Ganger bounced back from an off-day against Saint Mary's to provide the Utes with an early lead with a victory in singles and doubles with Mann.
Christopher Kamrani
U women's tennis team
The Utes were well prepared for their showdown with the No. 42 Boise State Broncos, but preparation wasn't enough, and the U fell 4-3 on Saturday.
Seniors Elizabeth Ferris and Emily Kwok started off the day at the top of the doubles order to face No. 40 Polina Kokoulina and Pichittra Thongdach. The Utah duo served up the upset of the day, rallying to defeat Kokoulina and Thongdach, 8-5.
The strengths for the day were the Utes and their doubles-teams. Leigh Walsh and Evgenia Kryuchkova stole the second doubles match of the day, besting Jana Mackova and Laura Baum.
Problems struck once single-matches commenced. Despite Ferris and Kryuchkova sending Kokoulina and Thongdach to losses early, the Broncos were able to rally off three consecutive singles victories which lead to their 4-3 victory over the Utes.
Christopher Kamrani
Two out of three isn't bad for hockey team
Greg Swenson and his teammates are feeling a little sore after playing three games in three nights for the U hockey club.
Still, no one was complaining after the Utes took two of those three, beating Mesa State College on both Thursday and Friday while falling to BYU on Saturday.
Swenson and defender Charles German scored two goals apiece on Thursday to lead the Skatin' Utes past the Mavericks, 6-1. The other two goals came from Matt Komma and Eric Rees. Rees scored his goal off a rare penalty shot.
"(Mesa St.) is a good team, but we just outplayed them," Swenson said. "We passed it around and pretty much played our game."
On Friday, the team's leading scorer, Mike Vrtis, scored a hat trick, and five others scored to give the Utes an 8-4 victory.
"Mike didn't score the night before, so he wanted to make up for it on Friday," Swenson said.
Saturday's showdown with archrival and the West region's No. 2-ranked BYU didn't go as smoothly for Utah.
BYU's Ben Shugart and Kasey Welsh each scored twice, and the Cougars run away with an 8-1 victory. Swenson scored the U's only goal by rerouting an Elliot Faulkner shot into the net late in the third period. Faulkner was credited with the assist.
"It was one of those games where no matter how hard we played, we just couldn't get it done," said goalie Jason Petho, who minded the night on Friday. "The officiating wasn't great and we caught some bad breaks."
The Utes head to Logan Friday to take on Utah St. before returning home on Saturday for a rematch with BYU.
Jason Peterson
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