Cottonwood golf, tennis teams shine at state
Cottonwood High’s boys golf and girls tennis teams continued their streak of impressive individual and collective performances at the state championships this season.
The Colts’ girls tennis team posted its third top-four showing in the last three seasons with a fourth-place finish at the state tournament at Liberty Park Oct. 6 and 8. Nos. 1 and 2 singles Katie Sweet and Sarah Sturt, respectively, each competed for the individual championship in their bracket. Alta and Lone Peak shared the state championship with respective team scores of 17 points.
Meanwhile, Cottonwood’s boys golf team finished sixth at the state tournament at Talons Cove Golf Course Oct. 5-6 in Saratoga Springs. The Colts were 14th overall last season and fourth in 2009. Alta won the team championship in a runaway, while Cottonwood was only eight strokes out of second place.
Girls tennis
Sweet, who had reached at least the semifinals in her first three years of high school, lost to Jordan’s Kallie Sperry 6-4, 6-4 for the No. 1 singles championship. Earlier, Sweet defeated her opponents from Layton 6-0, 6-1 in the first round, West 6-1, 6-0 in the quarterfinals and Lone Peak 7-5, 6-4 in the semifinals. Sweet’s brother, Matt, reached the No. 1 boys singles final earlier this year.
Sturt lost in the championship match for the second consecutive season, falling at No. 3 singles last year. Still, she had impressive showings, defeating her opponents from Layton 6-0, 6-0 in the first round, Lehi 6-0, 6-1 in the quarterfinals, and Bingham 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals. Sturt proceeded to lose to Davis’ Brianna Turley in the No. 2 singles championship match 6-3, 6-0.
No. 3 singles Lea Ljubicic defeated her Northridge opponent 6-0, 6-3 in the first round before losing to her Viewmont opponent 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
No. 1 doubles Sarah Campbell and Katie Rees lost their first match 6-2, 6-3 to Davis, while the No. 2 tandem of McKenzie Morris and Cassidy Brown defeated Fremont 6-3, 6-3 in the first round and pushed their Bingham opponents in the quarterfinals before losing 6-4, 6-2.
Cottonwood finished third overall last season and second in 2009.
Boys golf
Max Metcalf placed sixth individually with a two-day total of 150 (77-73) to pace the Colts. Henry Metcalf tied for 12th place with a 160 (80-80), while Taylor Jackson (90-84-174), Spencer Thurgood (84-91-175), Alec Klekas (101-81-182) and Parker Swope (90-101-191) rounded out the scoring.
Each day, the top four individual scores for each team were counted toward the team’s overall score. Cottonwood improved from a 331 in the first round to 318 in the second (649 total). Klekas’ 20-stroke improvement in the second round helped the Colts climb up the team standings.
Alta easily defeated the field with a 616, while Lone Peak was second at 641. Alta’s Kenny You won the individual state championship with a 139 (72-67).
