High school golf: Consistent Syracuse ahead of 5A field

OREM — To no one's surprise, the Syracuse Titans are taking care of business at the Utah 5A High School Golf Championships being played at the Links at Sleepy Ridge.

The Titans, Region 1 champions, had two golfers break par and another shoot par on Tuesday to grab an 8-shot lead heading into today's final round. It's the kind of consistency they've been getting all year, and the same kind of depth that led them to the state title last year at Valley View.

"We like how we played today and did everything that we wanted to do," Syracuse coach Brett Higgins said.

Leading the way for Syracuse is Region 1 medalist Devon Purser, who fired a 6-under 66. Jonathon Thomas added a 69, while teammate Colton Dallimore posted a par 72. The surprise for the Titans came from No. 5-seed Taylor Aldous, who turned in a 74.

"We thought our top two golfers would shoot in the 60s' and they did that, and we thought our other guys would shoot around even, and they did that," Higgins said. The team closest to Syracuse, again to no one's surprise, is Layton. The Lancers got a 67 from defending state medalist Brandon Kida, a 72 from Brennan Coburn, a 74 from Carson Stevenson and a 76 from Austin Coburn.

In third, well within striking distance at 14 shots behind, are the Lone Peak Knights, the 2008 state champions. Led by Mitch Call's 72 and Braxton Barber's 73, the Knights had all six players shoot 78 or lower.

Brighton sits in the fourth spot, a shot behind Lone Peak, with Bingham finishing the first-round in fifth, 21 strokes behind. Fremont, Skyline and Davis are tied for sixth, but trail Syracuse by 24 pops."The score is really zero-zero (heading into today's final round) so we're going to come out and play our game and stay focused," Higgins said.

The medalist battle is still up in the air as well, with 14 players at even par or better. Fremont's Patrick Fishburn, who has two runner-up finishes in the state tournament in his career, both by one shot, leads after 18 holes after posting a 7-under 65.

"I definitely want to break through and win one, but I'd really just like to get a good score for Fremont," said Fishburn, who will play for BYU next year.

Purser is one shot behind, and Kida trails by two. Four behind, but still in the chase after first-round 69s, are Brighton's Andrew Paulson and Northridge's Kyler Deardon. Kenny You (Alta) and Ben Angilau (Skyline) shot 70s, and West's Austin Banz was the only other golfer to break par with a 1-under 71. Five golfers shot even-par 72.