Spring Catholic high school sports: State lacrosse title for JDCHS, state discus record for SJCHS senior

Courtesy photo/Bob McLellan

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The Juan Diego Catholic High School lacrosse team celebrates its victory at the 2017 state championship.

SALT LAKE CITY — For the 2017 spring high school sports season, each of the three Utah Catholic schools was represented in competition at the state level in several sports.

Juan Diego CHS

The Soaring Eagle boys lacrosse team claimed the Utah High School Lacrosse League 2017 Class A Lacrosse State title, winning the final game against Brighton High School at Alta High School on May 20, with a score of 10-9. In the last 20 seconds of the game, the ball was passed to Blake Davis, who scored to secure the state championship for his team.

“It was a little nerve-racking on the sidelines,” said John Holmes, Juan Diego CHS lacrosse coach. “It was a back and forth game. … Brighton is always very strong, (and has) very good lacrosse players.”

The name of the game all year for the Soaring Eagle team was “to win the game all over the field,” not just to get the ball in the goal, but to be the best in every aspect of each game they played, he said, adding that this focus made a lot of difference in the final game.

The lacrosse team “really came together. … They had worked hard for it all year long,” he said. Beating Brighton was an especially significant victory the team, because they had lost to them in last year’s finals, Holmes said.

As the team bus arrived home after the game, it was met by a police escort to the Skaggs Catholic Center.

In the May 13 Utah High School Activities Association 2017 3A Soccer Championship, Juan Diego CHS lost to Ridgeline High School at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Juan Diego CHS also qualified for state competition in baseball, softball and boys tennis.

Judge Memorial CHS

The Bulldogs’ baseball team reached the third round of the second pod of the UHSAA 2017 4A Baseball Championship, where they lost to Timpanogos High School, which was ranked first in the 4A category and ended up winning the state championship.

That draw was bad luck, said Jessie Carrillo, Judge Memorial CHS baseball coach, but the Bulldogs had already met their season goal, which was to reach the state championship and to focus on proving those who doubted them wrong, he said.

At the beginning of the season, the team had to deal with a last-place finish in regionals the season before, and the projection that they would be last again in the 2016-2017 season, Carrillo said.

“We had a big chip on our shoulder coming into this,” he said.

The team refused to accept the prediction, he said, “so our goal from day one was: How do we get to state?”

The first step was to never take it easy; they purposefully loaded their pre-season with difficult opponents to make themselves better, and to make the jump to state feel like a decrease in difficulty rather than an increase, Carrillo said.

“We changed our culture; we changed to a winning culture,” he said.

The success was due to each member of the team, Carrillo said. The senior captains, Jackson Boomer, Seiji Nagasawa and Sam Castle were all instrumental to the team’s success, he said, but “it’s hard to say we had just one big strength” because everything tied together to help the team overcome the odds and reach their goal, he said.

The Bulldogs’ girls golf and tennis teams also qualified for state competition.

St. Joseph CHS

The Jayhawks’ girls golf team tied for fourth place with Milford High School in the UHSAA 1A State Championship, even though the four team members were newcomers to competitive golfing.

Considering the way the season started, the girls’ performance at the state level was nothing short of incredible, said Cameron Wood, coach of the St. Joseph CHS girls golf team.

None of the team members, Kathleen Van Hoffman, Sophie Bokinski, Amy Tekverk and Emma Dulaney, had played competitively before and three of the four had never played golf before at all, Wood said.

With this background, he had been prepared for a building season.

“We kept (the season) as laid back as possible to alleviate the natural pressure” that comes from competing, he said. This strategy ended up working extremely well for the team, although he was shocked when they qualified for state, Wood said.

Each of the four girls contributed to the team’s success, Wood said.

“Our team’s full of naturally athletic girls who … could pick up any sport,” he said. “These girls are just scratching the surface of their abilities.”

St. Joseph CHS also saw success in track and field, thanks to the efforts of senior Kathleen Tomon, who broke her own record at the UHSAA State Track and Field Championship.

IN addition to taking home first place in the discus throw, she placed first in shot put.

Earlier in the year, Tomon shattered the 2A state record in the discus throw by 8 feet. At the state championship, she set a new record of 133 feet. This is the second-highest girls discus throw record in the state of Utah, beaten only by the 3A record of 143 feet set in 1997 by Andrea Larson of Emery High School.

Tomon’s performance in the shot put and discus throw was incredible, said Joe Loffredo, SJCHS track and field coach. “She’s one of the best; she’s a great example of a student athlete.”

Tomon, the class of 2017 co-valedictorian who received an Academic All-State Athlete award, plans to attend Emory University with track and basketball scholarships.

Her best quality is that “she comes to practice every day and competes every day,” Loffredo said. “She’s probably the best I’ve ever had at doing that.”