Utah Catholic Schools winter sports wrap up

Courtesy photo/ Pat McLaughlin

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Judge freshman Caeli Sherman is usually known for her soccer skills, but she has become a strong swimmer, her coach says.

All three Utah Catholic high schools fielded teams in boys and girls basketball and swimming during the 2018-19 winter sports season. Juan Diego CHS also sent a wrestling team to state.

Judge Memorial Catholic High School

Swimming

The Bulldogs ended their season at the state swim meet at Brigham Young University Feb. 7 with several individual and relay placements in the top 10, leading to third place overall.

Judge’s girls’ team of Hailey Warden, Grace Sherman, Abby Runnels and Hailey Grandy took first place in the 200 yard medley relay. In the 200 yard freestyle relay, Caeli Sherman, Olivia Vandersteen, Emmy Hardin-Reynolds and Warden placed sixth.

In individual races, Runnels had many notable swims, said coach Sage Maaranen.

In the 100 yard backstroke, Runnels took fifth and Warden took sixth. Grandy placed second in the 200 yard freestyle and third in 100 yard freestyle. In the 100 yard breaststroke, Sherman placed fifth, and Penelope Dalton was 15th.

Judge took just eight boys to state but still managed to finish sixth overall.

“To be able to get enough points on a team of just eight swimmers to rank that highly shows the caliber of swimmers we have,” Maaranen said.

In the 200 yard medley relay, the Bulldog team of Ben Yarrish, Buddy Yanelli, Seth Overman and Chris Athens took sixth place. In the 400 yard freestyle relay, Eric Stevens, Yarrish, Overman and Yanelli took seventh.

Individually, in the 500 yard freestyle Jack Saber took third place and Yanelli took fourth.

 “The growth we’ve seen in the program over the last three years has been astounding,” Maaranen said.

Girls Basketball

The Bulldogs emerged as region champions and defeated San Juan 54-37 in the first round of state play Feb. 15 at Orem High School.

In the quarterfinals on Feb. 21 at Snow College, Juab beat Judge in a close 48-44 game. The Bulldogs rallied to defeat Morgan 50-32 in the first round of the consolation tournament semifinals Feb. 22 but lost to South Sevier 57-43 in the second round, taking sixth place in the consolation tournament. They finished the season 5-3 in region and 14-10 overall.

“We’re young and lacked a little game depth experience, especially down the stretch in the playoffs, but we definitely had a lot of girls that came in, bought in and worked hard,” coach Josh Pike said.

Freshman Teya Sidberry finished the season as the second-leading scorer in the state. Juniors Emily Malouf, Abbey Storms and Abigayle Kendell “took a big leadership role and did well using their experience to help the younger kids adapt faster,” Pike said.

Boys Basketball

For the first time since 2011, the Judge boys’ team won a state basketball game, beating Delta 64-60 in the first round of state play Feb. 16 at Orem High School.

However, they were defeated 58-43 in the quarterfinal game against Richfield Feb. 21 at Snow College.

 “This is a great experience for our team to get to participate in a state tournament atmosphere,” coach Tim Gardner said.

Senior Mac Tarver was named first team all-region. His brother Makaiah Tarver, a sophomore, made second team all-region.

St. Joseph Catholic High School

Boys Basketball

The Jayhawks boys team finished 10-13 overall and 4-6 in region. They were defeated by Parowan 81-55 in the first round of state at Snow College Feb. 16.

“This year was a very successful season, given the boys’ record last year, where they won all of two games,” new coach Demarko Armstrong said.

The team had “wonderful senior leadership” this year in Gavin Anderson, Terry Chen, Nick Garcia and Keanu Palu, Armstrong said. The team saw great contributions from C.J. Kierejewski and Stockton Buckway this year, said Armstrong, who is looking forward to the future with Jaxon Harper and Max Foerster, whom he described as “superstar” freshmen.

Girls Basketball

St. Joseph girls basketball went to state at Snow College Feb. 15 but lost in the first round to eventual state champion Beaver, 76-33.

“This team came off the floor in that game with no regrets, especially the senior girls,” coach Kelsey Henry said. “They did really well and put in really good games against all the schools, especially North Summit; they really stuck with them the first half.”

Virginia Tolman was “a really good all-around player and senior leader,” she said.

Swimming

St. Joseph competed in the 3A division and performed well for a school its size, coach Max Miller said. The team is made up of Anne Davis, Madeline Holl, Wesley Durbano, Max Holl, Pierson Wade, Hunter Young and Blake Hanson.

Davis and Hanson qualified for state, where Davis came in 11th in both the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard backstroke. Hanson was 18th in the 50 yard freestyle and 15th in the 100 yard freestyle.

Hanson holds all the school’s swim records in his events, and Davis holds all but one, Miller said.

Juan Diego Catholic High School

Boys Basketball

This season the Soaring Eagle took first in region for the fifth consecutive year. Overall, they tied a school record for wins (22) and posted the best record (22-2) in school history.  

“That is truly a testament to hours upon hours of hard work both during the season and during the off-season,” coach Drew Trost said. “I really thought our three seniors – Rai Tinirauarii, Lawson Roe and Kalthom Kur – did an excellent job of leading us and dominating those region games in key moments.”

In the first state round Feb. 22 at home, the boys went up against Sky View, the eventual state winner, and were defeated 51-40.

 “We played hard and great defensively in the game but we could not get anything to fall,” Trost said.

Tinirauarii was the team’s leader on and off the floor, Trost said.

“He was excellent in big moments where he took over several games and quite literally put our team on his back,” he said. “Another senior, Lawson Roe, had another great season as a dead-eye shooter. He finishes his career in our school’s Top 3 all-time record holder for three-point field goals made. He too was a great leader.”

Girls Basketball

In the first round of state play Feb. 23 at home, the Juan Diego girls team lost to Ridgeline 61-44. The Soaring Eagle finished 7-16 overall and 6-6 in region.

At state, Kiely Rasmussen tied for first for three-pointers and made first team all-region.

“I’m so proud of the growth the girls are making; they stay positive and stay consistent with the team’s goals,” coach Ashlee McKray said.

Swimming

The Juan Diego boys swim team won the region 11 meet and placed fourth at state, while the girls team placed 10th at state.

 “The kids did really great,” coach John Moran said. “Relatively, we are a small team where many teams are bigger than us, but our swimmers still scored enough points to represent Juan Diego well.”

At state, the boys’ team of William Anderson, Alexander Gustat, Ian Pascual and JR Gustat took third in the 200 yard freestyle relay and fifth in the 200 yard medley relay.

Alexander Gustat set a new school record at region. At state, he and took first place in the 100 yard breaststroke and fourth in the 100 yard butterfly.

Sophomore Payton Bouwhuis put in an outstanding performance, Moran said, taking fifth in 200 yard freestyle and sixth in 500 yard freestyle.

On the girls’ side, Abby Whittington dropped four seconds in the 100 yard freestyle to come in second; she also took third place in the 50 yard freestyle.

Wrestling

Three Soaring Eagle wrestlers qualified for the Feb. 15 state tournament at Utah Valley University. Matthew Sedillo, 120 pounds, won his first two matches in state competition, but lost in the third round to place fifth at state after coming in second at the regional competition. Brock Gutierrez, 126 pounds, who took eighth at region, lost his first two state matches. Konnor Kegel, 113 pounds, placed fifth at region and qualified for state but was unable to compete because of an injury.