Morgan golf team captures 2nd Place at State Championships
Oct 25, 2024 11:07AM ● By Liisa London Mecham
The top 11 golfers in the 3A State Tournament celebrate their victories. Morgan’s Lance Loughton (far left) earned medalist honors for the second year in a row. Jace Benson tied for third and Caleb Rees tied for seventh. Photo courtesy of Jane Poll.
The Morgan High School golf team completed a strong season with a second-place finish at the 2024 3A State Championships, held at The Ridge Golf Course in West Valley City Oct. 16-17. The defending champions topped the state rankings throughout the season, led by returning 3A medalist and senior Lance Loughton. After a hard-fought, two-day tournament, Morgan finished three strokes behind Richfield, with final scores of +13 to Richfield’s +10. The Wildcats earned their 16th state golf championship, tying Park City, who also won their 16th title this season.
Individually, Loughton led throughout the tournament, repeating as medalist with a two-day total of 136 (-4). As a two-time medalist, Loughton joins the Trojans’ Tanner Telford (2019, 2021) and 20 other Utahns as repeat medalists. Only four high school golfers have won three individual titles, and there are no four-time winners.
Loughton’s greatest challenge came from his top Region 13 competition, Ben Lomond senior Cayson VanBeekum. After finishing the first day +1, VanBeekum dug deep and finished the course four under par for a two day total of 137. With VanBeekum sitting in the club house with a three under par, Loughton led by one going into the 16th hole, but bogeyed the hole to tie it up. Loughton escaped 17 with a par 5 and birdied the final hole to clinch his second straight medalist honor.
After the first day of the tournament, the Morgan team led Richfield by one stroke, +6 to +7 with
Carbon and Union trailing at +19 and +20. Loughton first round 65 gave him a one stroke lead over teammate sophomore Caleb Rees and Carbon’s Dayton King who both posted 66s. Loughton recorded six birdies on the day, and Rees three. Morgan freshman Jace Benson finished his first round at state tied for fourth at 68. Fellow freshman Korver Toone shot a +11 as the fourth scorer for Day 1, completing the course tied for 30th. The Trojan’s Kaizer Olaveson finished the day tied for 49th at +15 while Kash Peterson was +16 tied for 54th.
Day 2 brought more challenging weather, and a tough challenge from Richfield as the team lead moved back and forth between the two storied programs. In the end, the Wildcats took a three stroke lead down the back nine and claimed the 2024 title.
In addition to Loughton’s first place finish, Benson finished tied for third overall at -2, shooting a 68 Day 1 and a 70 in the second round. Rees ended the tournament tied for seventh +4 (144) while Toone finished with 155 points (+15). Olaveson and Peterson rounded out the Trojans’ roster, finishing tied for 44th and 46th, respectively.
With Loughton set to graduate and serve a mission for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before continuing his golf career at the University of Utah, Morgan will look to rebuild around the talented underclassmen who gained valuable state-level experience this year and represented Morgan so well.
The Trojans will return all of this year’s state lineup except Loughton next year as they work to reclaim their title in 2025. λ
