When it came to dominating the sports scene in the southeastern part of the Salt Lake Valley, Brighton High used to reign supreme. From the early 1980s through the mid-'90s, nobody in the state won as many All-Sports awards as the Bengals, who claimed the Deseret Morning News' competition for the best all-around sports school an amazing 13 times between 1980 and '97.
Fast forward to 2005, and it's a little bit different story. The Bengals still finished higher than any of the other big-classification schools in the area — fortunately for them, Juan Diego is a 2A school — but they only managed to place sixth in 5A. Perhaps some consolation for Brighton is that rival Skyline didn't win — Davis High did, a first for a Davis County school.
For the third straight year, Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper and Waterford High School in Sandy each won the prestigious awards for their respective classifications. None of the other local schools finished in the top five.
Here's a look at how the local 5A schools' sports programs did in the 2004-05 school year:
ALTA (9th, 40 points): In somewhat of a down sports year, successful soccer seasons helped keep the Hawks in the top 10 of the state's largest classification.
BYU-bound Katie Larkin sparked Alta's girls soccer squad physically and emotionally, leading the Hawks to their only team championship of the school year. Larkin topped all classifications in scoring with 34 goals while dishing out 24 assists to become the third MVP in six years from Alta. Her 67 career goals are a school record. Larkin helped the Hawks win despite the team's loss of Katie Fellows to injury and the fact three ambulances visited Alta games or practices during the season.
Larkin wasn't the only talented Alta player, though. Whitney Feller, Alyssa Lowry, Lisa Crump and Karen Cook made first-team all-state.
The boys' attempt to add a second soccer title this year was thwarted in a stunning semifinal loss to rival Jordan, which had been blown out in two previous meetings. Still, Alta netted two underclassmen first-teamers in sophomore Garrett Losee (16 goals) and junior Aaron Weyman (nine shutouts).
In football, the Hawks lost more games than usual, and they also lost their coach when longtime sideline fixture Mitch Lunak was let go. Dave Johnson, a tight end who had 602 yards receiving with four TDs, was the school's sole football first-teamer, and offensive lineman Preston Erickson made the second team.
Heidi Halvorsen turned in the school's best performance on the track, surprising herself and teammates with a second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles to help Alta take third. Brett Kotter had a couple of strong showings in fall and spring runs, taking fourth in cross country and fourth in the 3,200 meters.
Baseball player Davey Johnson also had a good spring, hitting .482 with four home runs and 28 RBIs, good for first-team honors.
Jared Day boosted the Hawks to fifth in wrestling as he captured the 125-pound crown. Steve Michels won the silver at 145.
Studentbody president Greg Anderson had a good year for the Hawk basketball team, but a concussion to freshman sensation Taylor Brown held Alta down to a quarterfinal finish. The Hawks also took sixth in volleyball, boosted by another Anderson — Sydney, an all-state outside hitter who averaged 15 kills, four aces and seven blocks per match.
BRIGHTON (5A: 6th, 51 points): Though not nearly as dominant as they were while winning a record 11 All-Sports awards in a row, the Bengals are usually in the hunt for the award. This year was a rare exception. Brighton didn't even finish in the top five, coming in sixth behind Davis, Skyline, Bingham, Viewmont and Fremont. While that would be considered a successful year at most schools, that's not the case at this proud sports powerhouse.
Perhaps the strangest thing about Brighton's sports year is the fact the Bengals didn't even win a state title in the sports that count toward the All-Sports award. A second-place finish by the volleyball team was the school's best playoff showing. Brighton did have a bunch of almosts as its No. 1-ranked football team and boys soccer squad made it to the semifinals, while its boys golf and girls swimming teams took third. Fourth was the final destination for boys cross country and tennis.
Brighton's football loss in the semifinals to Cottonwood was one of the most stunning and stinging upsets of the high school sports season. The Bengals offense had rolled most of the season, including in a preseason 34-20 victory over the Colts, but sputtered to only 65 first-half yards against Cottonwood and ended with three straight turnover possessions. The result: Brighton's only loss of the season.
Still, it was a great ride for the Bengals up to that point. Running back Randon Carter, who rushed for 1,282 yards and 13 TDs, and offensive lineman Blake Taylor were awarded first-team all-state, while teammates Sean Clements, Taylor Gleave, Alex Richardson, Mike Wilkinson and Mike Hague were second-teamers.
The highly regarded boys basketball team didn't fare as well as many expected, either. Ohio State-bound center Brayden Bell played well enough to earn second-team all-state honors, but Brighton bowed out in the first round.
One of the biggest honors of the year came to the girls basketball program as future BYU player Vanessa Hutson was named Utah's Ms. Basketball by the Deseret Morning News. It was an award well-deserved by a young woman who overcame more than her fair share of trials in her high school career, including the death of her best friend on the same day her mother had surgery.
As a senior, Hutson averaged 16 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Though Brighton didn't win the volleyball title, the Bengals at least can brag that they were the only team to win a game against Viewmont. The Vikings got the match, though. First-team all-stater Marisa Vandersteen, a middle blocker who averaged 3.3 kills and four blocks, and outside hitter Andrea Kelly led Brighton.
Wrestling bright spots came thanks to championship-winning grapplers Josh Egan (145 pounds) and Talan Knox (160 pounds).
In swimming, Ana Agy won the girls 100-yard backstroke to help the Bengals win the bronze.
HILLCREST (5A: 17th, 13.5 points): Though the boys didn't notch any All-Sports points — meaning no eight-place finishes or higher in state — the girls gave the school some team highlights for the year. The best overall performance came from the girls tennis team, which won the school's only state title.
Jenni Matthews, who's diabetic, and doubles partner Natalie Pinnell clinched the Huskies' championship with their win over Skyline. Danielle Dastrup and Ellie Durrant also won their doubles title, while Jill Borg added a third singles gold to help the Huskies repeat as state champs under retiring coach Jim Hashimoto.
Hillcrest's next-best placement was a quarterfinal showing by the girls soccer squad and an eight-place track finish. Riddle was a key cog in both of those showings. The first-team all-state junior sparked the soccer squad with 15 goals, and then she finished third in the 300-meter hurdles and fifth in the 100 hurdles.
And while the boys struggled team-wise, Robert Takeno had one of the best years of the Huskies. He was a first-team linebacker and then went on to win the 215-pound 5A wrestling trophy. Offensive lineman Zane Beadles joined him on the all-state first team, while receiver Ben Hendy was a second-teamer. Hillcrest nearly pulled off a big upset in the first round before succumbing in the end to Northridge.
Bryce Brunson earned third-team all-state honors for the boys basketball squad, while Deney Phommabout was honorable mention for the girls.
JORDAN (5A: 7th, 47 points): The Beetdiggers earned some bragging rights over their neighbors since they won a couple of state championships, the most of any of the 5A schools in the area. And the boys programs were among the top five in the class.
Miles Batty and Jared Bienlien finished first and third, respectively, in the cross-country race at Sugarhouse Park last October to lead the 'Diggers to their first-ever cross country title. Jordan also had nice supporting runs by Ryan Bingham (16th), Kyle Becci (21st), Jacob Wagstaff (27th), Adam Norris (36th) and Brian Summers (50th).
Jordan's other state championship was even a bigger surprise than the runners' victory, which makes the soccer title all the more satisfying for team leaders and first-team all-staters Darren O'Brien, Wes Wagstaff and Devin Herrin. The Beetdiggers had to overcome rival Alta in the semifinals, a team they lost to twice in the regular season, and then upended favored Viewmont in the title tilt.
The young Beetdiggers nearly captured another crown — were only two outs away, in fact — but their hopes were smashed when a bad bounce gave Cottonwood an eighth-inning win in the championship game. The incredible part of Jordan's baseball run was that it lost early in the playoffs by 10 runs to Viewmont before winning seven in a row, thanks to two wins by Brett Cobbley, wins by Garrett Nash and James Mahler and solid innings by Tyler Anderson, Adam Roberts and Brady Groves. Cobbley, a junior, and Nash, Mahler and catcher Zach Jones, all sophomores, merited first-team recognition and give Jordan reason to smile about the future.
In track, J.C. Halbert helped Jordan to third place, winning the javelin with a throw of 172-03. Batty and Bienlien also had a pair of top-five finishes, with Batty taking second in the 1,600 meters and fifth in the 3,200 meters and Bienlien coming in fourth and second, respectively.
Jordan had a pair of first-team softballers in Stephanie Calloway and Cami Jones.
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