Sports briefs

Hockey
After receiving a No. 2 ranking behind Colorado in the Division II Western Regional in the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s first rankings of the season Utah Valley dropped its first games of the season. No. 6 Denver beat Utah Valley 4-1 and the next night Utah Valley lost to UNLV 5-4. David Wyman leads the team with 25 goals and 30 assists in 16 games this season. Seth Armitage has 16 goals and 25 assists. This week, Utah Valley plays its final two home games of the first half of the season. Friday is an in-state game against struggling Utah and Saturday the Wolverines play host to Walla Walla, both games will be at the Peaks Ice Arena. Both games will be played in the honor of assistant coach Ken Dolezar. 

Men’s golf
The Utah Valley men’s golf team put together the best two rounds in school history on Saturday, shooting a combined score of 30-under at the Agua-Caliente Air Force Academy Collegiate Invitational. The tournament is being held at the Indian Canyons Golf Resort in Palm Springs, California.

The Wolverines tied the best round in school history with an 11-under 277 in the first round and shattered that with a 19-under 269 in the second round. The previous round shot at 11-under was at the Ron Moore Invitational on September 27, 2004.

All four golfers who accounted for the team score are under par led by Nick Nelson, who is tied for fifth overall at 11-under after rounds of 68 and 65. Nick Neal is just one shot behind Nelson after a 64 in the second round and tied for eighth while Jeff Gibson is tied for 23rd at 5-under and Andrew Smith is 4-under and tied for 28th.

Wrestling
Ben Kjar’s second-place finish in the 125-pound weight division highlighted the Utah Valley wrestling team’s appearance at the Cowboy Open at the University of Wyoming.
Kjar was one of 12 UV wrestlers competing in the Elite Tournament portion of the event. Two of the 12 are redshirting and wrestled unattached at the open tournament. The Cowboy Open is the second consecutive strong showing for the redshirt freshman Kjar and the Wolverine wrestlers.

Posting a 3-1 record, Kjar advanced to the final match in the championship bracket of the Elite Division Tournament. Other Utah Valley wrestlers that posted double-digit wins were Flint Ray (3-2), Nate Gardner (2-2), Justin Morrill-who wrestled unattached-(4-2) and Jeb Clark who posted a 2-2 record while also wrestling unattached.