For two straight years the Carbon Dinos have finished fifth at the season ending 3A State Championship Tournament. Now one of the bigger schools in the classification following region realignment, the team is viewed as one of the front runners entering 2017.

Despite having a new look after losing top region players Kayden Alderson and Joey Penovich to graduation, the Dinos will rely heavily on senior standout Ryker Smith. Named to the 3A All-State team during his junior campaign, Smith delivered a second place performance at the Utah High School All-State Invitational at the Fox Hollow Course in May. Those types of performances may be key for Carbon over the next two months.

“Ryker has been one of those kids that I can depend on week-in and week-out,” said head coach Tom King Wednesday on KOAL’s Drive Time Sports. “We are going to miss Alderson and Penovich based on their production over the past two years. so I have to depend on Ryker and a couple of other kids that have come back from the previous year.”

After delivering the team’s second lowest two-day score at the state championship last season, Ryan Gagon will play a pivotal role in the team’s success this coming season. King also expects Ryan’s brother Brady to contribute heavily at the varsity level. Carson Martines is also looking to build off of a highly successful 2016 season.

While the Gagon brothers and Martines possess plenty of varsity experience to help push the Dinos towards the ultimate goal, King was pleasantly surprised by the emergence of Zade Carrillo during summer.

“Quite honestly the kid that impressed me the most throughout the summer is Zade. He got cut last year, but improved his scores and has been playing pretty solid. I’m expecting to lean on him during the season as well.”

The Dinos will join 19 other schools in the 3A classification, which consists of three regions. Carbon is matched with American Leadership, Delta, Juab, Maeser, Providence Hall and Union in Region 14. The outcome of the recent change in divisions has each team competing in seven region meets throughout the year.

“We’ve got our team set, and now they are preparing to qualify for two days to see who is going to be on the team for the first tournament,” King said. “With this new region it is going to be a little bit different. There are a few more teams, so we’ll have a few more tournaments.”

The first region meet of the season will take place on Tuesday, August 8 at Fox Hollow, the home course of Maeser Prep. Each team will participate in one meet for seven straight weeks without a break in league action. The home region meet will take place on September 7.

Following league action the Dinos will play host to the annual Eastern Utah Cup on Sept. 28. The Eastern Utah Cup is an annual event that consists of Carbon, Uintah and Union. The Dinos have won the event two of the last three years and currently hold control of the traveling trophy following last year’s win in Vernal.

Listen to King’s complete interview from Wednesday: