Author: Jesse

There’s a quiet reverence on set of “The Chosen.” Soft whispers and the smack of strappy sandals against the ground are the only noises that come from the 600 background actors filming in Goshen, Utah, in mid-May.

The silence is broken by an assistant director who calls, “Background rolling!” through a megaphone. Hundreds of background actors shuffle back into place, and the sound of chirping birds still rings through.

The scene being shot — which will appear in Season 6 of “The Chosen” — depicts a confrontation between Roman soldier Atticus (Elijah Alexander) and the Pharisee Yanni (Wasim No’mani).

It needs to be reshot. Fluctuating weather and lighting are to blame this time, but it typically takes between one and seven takes to get a scene right.

Adjustments are made for lighting control and the show goes on. Lead actors play their parts while hundreds of extras, the bulk of whom are unpaid fans of “The Chosen,” fill the background with choreographed chaos.

After a couple more shoots, the scene is successfully completed. Hundreds of background actors erupt in applause.

“We’re not used to finishing a shot and having applause,” Dallas Jenkins told the Deseret News while filming on set in Goshen.

For three weeks, a rotation of 600 unpaid extras were on set of “The Chosen,” filming scenes for Season 6. All of these extras are fans of the show and enjoy the opportunity to be part of its creation in exchange for making a donation — after all, “The Chosen” is a crowd-funded series.

When these fan extras are on set, “there’s a ton more joy,” Jenkins said. “Every time they’re here, it gives everybody, the cast and crew, a little bit of a better recharge.

“It‘s very authentic that people are so excited to be here and so excited to be part of it,” he continued. “The scenes, I think, take on a life of their own.”

Filming ‘The Chosen’ in Utah

Filming for “The Chosen” Season 6 is split mostly between a set in Midlothian, Texas and the set in Goshen, Utah — a small town on the southwest edge of Utah County.

Construction on the Utah replica of Jerusalem began in 2010. The set, which is officially called the Motion Picture Studio South Campus, is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The Chosen” has used the set for filming since Season 2.

“You can tell that the people who built this set cared about every detail, and so do we,” Jenkins said. “When you’re working on a set that‘s this rich and clearly built with honor and respect for the story and authenticity, it inspires me to do the same.”

Cast and crew from “The Chosen” spent three weeks filming scenes for Season 6 in Goshen in May. They’ll soon head to Italy to shoot the final scenes.

While still in Utah, a few scenes will be shot on off-set locations such as at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes in Juab County and the Bonneville Salt Flats in Tooele County.

“The first time I saw (the Goshen set), I couldn’t believe the scope and the scale of it. … It‘s just extraordinary,” Karla Cameron, a paid background actor for “The Chosen” told the Deseret News.

“I‘ve actually visited Israel and been to Jerusalem and seen the sites. They’ve done an excellent job of recreating this in the middle of beautiful Utah.”

‘The Chosen’ fans are co-creators

When Jenkins released Season 1 of “The Chosen,” he didn’t anticipate how large the biblical drama’s fan base would be.

“I didn’t know that there would be any fans,” he said.

Now, more than 280 million viewers in 175 countries have seen “The Chosen” and more than $43.3 million has been fundraised to put the sixth season of the series in front of audiences, per the official “Chosen” site. The bulk of that money comes from fans.

Ahead of filming the Sermon on the Mount scene in Season 2, Jenkins found a way to involve fans who’d made donations to funding the series, while simultaneously benefiting its creation.

“The Chosen” didn’t have the “ability to bring in thousands of people” to form the massive audience gathered around Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount.

So Jenkins came up with a solution. “We thought, ‘Well, the fans would love to be here. They’re willing to support the show. Maybe in exchange for their donation, we could give them an opportunity to be here.’”

Fans of the series travelled great distances — some from foreign countries — and bought their own costumes so they could be part of “The Chosen” experience.

Now nearly six seasons into the series, fans of “The Chosen” continue to show up.

“The fans have always been co-creators of the show. We’re a free show. The majority of our income is generated by donations, by fans choosing to give in some way to the show,” Jenkins said. “I’ve always considered it to be a partnership. When they’re here on set, it‘s even more so because they’re literally part of the scene.”

He continued, “That‘s deepened my relationship with the fans. And I think them being here and seeing how hard everyone works to justify their faith in the project deepens their passion as well.”

Why extras make the trek to Goshen, Utah

The bulk of background actors won’t receive even a modest bit of screen time. They will blur and blend into the backdrop of the show.

But for these 600 extras, it‘s all about getting a taste of “The Chosen” experience and helping put it in front of a global audience.

Simona Pester travelled from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to blend into the background of “The Chosen” for the fifth consecutive time.

“I’m here … because I love the show. I think it‘s very well done, very well written,” Pester told the Deseret News while on set in Goshen. “I just love to be a part of it. It‘s great opportunity.”

She continued, “‘The Chosen’ is a way of people hearing the gospel across borders … and I want to support that. It‘s worth more to me than any possession or any riches. … I’m willing to give my treasures and possessions to support the show so that other people (can) have the real treasure.”

Karla Cameron, from Atlanta, shared similar motives for making the trek to Utah to be in “The Chosen.”

For Cameron, it‘s about supporting cast and crew of the series to bring the “story about Jesus Christ‘s life” to audiences.

“(’The Chosen’) is a way to access the information, because perhaps you’re not going to read the Bible, but you can see the story, and it will incentivize you to then maybe get a little deeper into the story by opening the Bible and reading it,” Cameron said. “I love it. I think it‘s amazing.”

She concluded, “I am definitely here for the word and for God’s word. … I love it so much.”

The last time Ruth Haws Pauni drove out to the lone cemetery in Utah’s remote and deserted Skull Valley, the tiki statues her family had placed there to guard their ancestors were still standing.

She remembers smiling as she walked past them on April 23, visiting her father’s gravesite two days before his birthday. Her nephew lovingly carved them to honor the generations of Pacific Islanders buried in this desolate place far from anywhere they had known.

In the early 1880s, their ancestors came to Utah from Hawaii to be part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and help build the faith’s temple in Salt Lake City. But when construction was done in 1889, faith leaders instructed them to leave for the isolated desert of Tooele County to start their own outpost, which they named Iosepa after church leader Joseph F. Smith, who had proselytized in Hawaii.

Haws Pauni felt like the wooden tikis were a beautiful nod to that history and culture.

A week after she last saw them, though, they were destroyed and left in pieces.

Someone came to the Iosepa cemetery— all that remains of the town that was ultimately abandoned in 1917 — and cut the statues down.

They chopped the tikis into chunks and stacked the pieces next to the fire pit at the site, where families gather each Memorial Day for a celebration and commemoration that includes cooking a pig over a traditional imu underground oven. The faces carved into the colorful statues were sliced down the center. The leaf crown that had been on one was torn apart.

The only sign that they had once stood were the clean-cut remnants of their bases, which had been cemented into the ground when Haws Pauni’s family originally installed them in May 2024 ahead of the annual gathering.

“They literally took a chain saw to it,” Haws Pauni said, choking back tears. “It just broke my heart.”

Haws Pauni, 52, said she’s glad that her mom got to see the tikis while they were still standing.

She had brought her mom, Vermine Haws — or “Tutu” as most know her, which is Hawaiian for “grandma”— with her last month to visit the grave of Paul Haws, who was Haws Pauni’s dad and Vermine’s husband.

Vermine, who is 87 and has dementia, sometimes asks for Paul, forgetting that he died and is buried there now. And so Haws Pauni drives her to the site when she can. Vermine joined in strumming her ukele as family members sang “Happy Birthday” to his headstone surrounded by seashells.

The family learned the tikis were gone on May 1, after several members of the Iosepa Historical Association had gone to the cemetery to prepare ahead of this year’s Memorial Day event and sent Haws Pauni pictures of the toppled remains.

Her brother, Brook, jumped on his motorcycle and raced out to Iosepa to see for himself. Haws Pauni cried.

Reporting the vandalism

Haws Pauni feels the destruction may have been “premeditated.” She said she hadn’t heard until after they were cut down that some families who have relatives in the Iosepa cemetery took issue with them.

The two tikis were crafted to represent Wahine and Kāne, woman and man, in the Hawaiian tradition. It took Haws Pauni’s nephew about 100 hours to carve them from a dark wood with help from his dad, using a stain to color their teeth.

The female tiki was about 4 feet tall, with the leaf crown. The male was about 5 feet tall, with a red-stained top. Next to them, a wooden sign also explained, “Guardians and protectors of our ancestors’ sacred land.”

The family had intended to install a nicer, more permanent metal sign but hadn’t yet finished it. The wooden one was also chopped down when the tikis were destroyed.

Ron Manuela, the president of the Iosepa Historical Association, said he’d recently heard from a handful of members who “made their thoughts known” that having the tikis at the cemetery was, they felt, in bad taste.

“I was surprised that people had objections to it,” he said. “But they didn’t feel that was appropriate out there.”

Manuela said that ancestors in the past would make tikis when they lived in Hawaii and believed in many gods. He noted they are part of their heritage and on display, for instance, at Hawaii’s Polynesian Cultural Center.

But some community members, he said, felt that having tikis conflicted with their ancestors’ decision to switch to Christianity, and particularly at Iosepa, to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“They just didn’t see there was room for both,” Manuela added.

It’s unclear why some took issue with the tikis when a separate metal-and-cement warrior statue has long watched over the site without complaint, he said. A new lei is placed around its neck each Memorial Day.

“Their native songs and dances filled this beautiful valley, which they made bloom as a rose with love and aloha,” the memorial below it reads.

There’s also a plaque recognizing the work of Hawaiian women’s suffragist Hannah Kaaepa, who is buried there, that Manuela said hasn’t drawn ire.

During the annual gathering on Memorial Day, families clean each grave at the cemetery, pulling the weeds that have cropped up since the previous year. They also place seashells and Hawaiian flags around the headstones and lay down traditional tapa cloths, woven from the bark of the paper mulberry trees in the Pacific Islands.

They sing Hawaiian songs and hold a Sunday service in line with the LDS Church.

Haws Pauni said tikis have historically watched over sacred sites, and that was the family’s only intention. “It’s not like we’re suggesting a return to paganism,” she said. “These were made with love. They were made with the most beautiful love. … It was just there as a symbol of our love for our ancestors.”

Manuela said he does not know who cut down the tikis, but he believes they should be held responsible. He has reported the vandalism to the Tooele County Sheriff’s Office, which confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune that it is currently investigating.

Sgt. Brandon Light said the department believes the tikis were destroyed on April 30 or May 1, based on when people had last seen them standing and when the historical association documented they had been cut down.

“We’re still diving into it,” Light said. “It’s a ways out there, and it’s a lot to look into.”

The family’s history at Iosepa

The Iosepa cemetery is 46 miles from the closest major city of Tooele and 60 miles from Salt Lake City.

Before he died, that was something Paul Haws talked about often — feeling that it showed the tenacity of the Hawaiian Latter-day Saints who lived there.

“Finding a way to make their city grow, they went up here in the mountains and poured cement ditches to get the water to run down,” he said in a video recorded in May 2023, the last time he went to Iosepa before he died in October of that year.

He was 89 years old then and still working hard to clean the graves like he had done for about 70 years before. Family photos show him with a huge smile, gloves on his hands and spots of dust on his knees from bending down in the desert dirt.

Haws wasn’t Hawaiian — his daughter Haws Pauni describes him as a red-headed, blue-eyed Utah cowboy. But he met his wife, Vermine, in Hawaii in the early 1950s when he was stationed there during his military service.

Paul and Vermine married as teenagers and moved to Utah together, running a farm below West Mountain in Utah County. Vermine is a direct descendant of the Iosepa ancestors, and the two raised their children to understand that history.

Paul was particularly devoted to Iosepa, Haws Pauni said, and actually started the tradition of cleaning the graves when he brought his children to do it each year. He wanted them to know where they came from and to respect their ancestors. Their mom also taught them to dance hula and about the Hawaiian way of being.

Haws Pauni remembers visiting Iosepa every summer, getting eaten by gnats and sunburned as they removed the tall yellow grasses and thistles around headstones; soon, other families started joining.

“That’s something that was instilled in us,” she said. “We came here to honor our ancestors and clean up for them.”

After a time, though, as they grew up, she and her siblings stopped going. And, she said, her dad pleaded with them to return and bring their kids so it wouldn’t be forgotten.

Haws Pauni started going again in 2023, not knowing it would be her dad’s last time. She remembers him joking that he needed to give the younger generations a reason to visit. And so he declared then that he would be buried at Iosepa.

In October 2023, a week after he died, the family gathered there for his funeral. It was a beautiful mix, she said, of military, Hawaiian and Latter-day Saint traditions.

“Iosepa is even more important to us now because our papa is buried there,” Haws Pauni said. “It was just such a special place, and we pulled ourselves back into it.”

It was shortly after that, she said, that her nephew started working on the tikis.

Now it’s unclear, she said, if he will come out to the cemetery for the Memorial Day gathering this year; he is devastated. He declined to speak with The Tribune but agreed to be identified as a grandson of Paul and Vermine Haws.

‘We will go there with aloha’

Manuela said he’s not sure yet what the Iosepa Historical Association will do with the tikis. He’s still talking with the family to see what they want, including piecing them back together, making new ones or removing them altogether.

As of now, he said, he’s leaving the bases that mark where they stood until a decision is made.

He wishes, though, that instead of someone destroying the statues that the community could’ve come together and talked about what was best for everyone.

Haws Pauni agrees. And she said she is ready to forgive whoever cut them down.

“I was super angry at first,” she said, “but the more I learn about it, the more I think these are imperfect humans.”

She said she still plans to attend the Memorial Day gathering with her husband, kids and Vermine, who she plans to drive up from St. George. She hopes her mom doesn’t cry when she realizes the tikis are missing.

“We will go there with aloha. We will go there with love,” she said. “We’ll still go and honor our dad.”

Note to readers • This is part of a collaborative project between The Salt Lake Tribune and the Highland High School Rambler. Read more here.

The modern world is full of connection. In each person’s pockets is a tiny little box that shrinks the globe and gives access to the entire world anytime anywhere.

Never before have people been able to experience the troubles of the world at such a young age before they fully know how to carry it.

This leads to a lot of anger and despair amongst younger people.

But feeling that anger and despair also gives people — like Highland senior Ali Jadallah — more motivation to cry out against injustice in the world. He has turned to social media to spread awareness about the war in Gaza and the consequences that it’s been having on the people there.

“You couldn’t give someone a piece of paper and then somehow the entirety of the United States would see that,” Jadallah said. “But now you can make a post, and the entirety of the world can see that post.”

This ability has only come about in the last 20 years, and even then, social media didn’t come close to possessing the global hold that it does now until the last 15 years.

These are uncharted waters.

Jadallah believes that this ability to connect is a good thing because it allows voices to be heard. And young people like Jadallah are looking for places from which to shout.

“It just really allows people to get their voices out now,” Jadallah said. “I think the fact that people around the world can see what’s happening on the other side of the world, that’s a good thing. The spread of information is good.”

It’s humanizing, he said.

“You feel much more connected to something if you actually see it happening with your own eyes,” Jadallah said. “You can see a news article and be like, ‘Oh, 20 dead in a house fire.’ But if you actually saw a video of someone in that house fire with the house burning down and their final moments, you’re going to feel much more impacted if you saw that video rather than just read[ing] a random news article.”

But as information is spread, misinformation soon follows. Through social media, misinformation spreads like wildfire through the masses.

“Certain people aren’t open to all viewpoints and all kinds of information and stuff like that,” Jadallah said. “They only want to see stuff that fits their narrative, and social media is a big part of that. There‘s a bunch of people that will spread misinformation and claim it to be true just because it fits their certain narrative.”

It’s a unique problem to the modern world, and one that Jadallah believes carries a simple fix.

“Just get educated,” Jadallah said. “Someone could see a news article that says the sky is purple, and they won’t go out to go look if the sky is purple. They’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, the sky is purple. What should we do?’ People, before they wholeheartedly believe anything they see, just need to go do their own research. Like actually read into things, get their own opinions and their own basis actually built off of information and actual evidence. Not opinions, evidence.”

Jadallah believes that getting your voice out and making a change are two very different things, which is why he also recommends getting involved in the community and reaching out to those in power.

“The government is literally built off of ‘We the People,’” Jadallah said. “I feel like people need to get more involved. People need to go to our representatives and stuff like that and actually push things that we need to see change in.”

Luca DiGregorio is a senior at Highland High School and is editor-in-chief at The Rambler, his high school newspaper. After graduating, he plans to pursue journalism. When he’s not reporting, he can be found at any number of coffee shops reading and enjoying the world around him.

Elyse Martin-Smith began meeting with her classmates at Harvard University last summer to plan the annual Black student graduation hosted by a campus group she leads.

The ceremony was set to be a celebration of Black culture, featuring musicians, poetry readings, messages about the historic struggle for racial equality, and a speech by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the “1619 Project,” Martin-Smith said.

Students had reserved Harvard Memorial Church on campus for the event, she said.

But in early May, Martin-Smith said she received an email from university officials saying she would not be allowed to host the Black graduation on campus.

Harvard is among several universities across the country that have canceled affinity graduations amid threats from President Donald Trump to block medical research funding and revoke accreditation from schools that don’t end diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Trump decries these programs as “illegal and immoral discrimination.”

Affinity graduations are optional events typically led by students to celebrate different student identities and ethnicities. Commonly held ceremonies often honor Black, Hispanic, Asian, first-generation and LGBTQ+ students. Students say the events are significant because they honor the music, apparel, food, history, language and traditions unique to their identity.

Harvard and other elite universities have also clashed with Trump over his demands for crackdowns on student protests, including pro-Palestinian demonstrations and purported antisemitism.

The lost support for affinity graduations — coming just weeks before most universities were set to hold their commencement events — left some students scrambling to find ways to still host the events.

Martin-Smith said she was “disappointed but not surprised” when the school canceled the Black student graduation hosted by her group, Harvard Undergraduate Black Community Leaders.

In late April, Harvard announced it was renaming its diversity, equity, and inclusion office and rescinding all funding from affinity group commencement celebrations. The move came after the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in federal funding for Harvard when the Ivy League school initially said it would not follow policy demands from the administration.

“This isn’t the first time the university has catered to PR (public relations) concerns rather than student concerns,” Martin-Smith said.

Martin-Smith was determined to hold the Black graduation and spent time between finals study sessions calling venues to secure a space off campus, she said.

She ultimately found a venue and obtained support from the Black Graduate Student Alliance and the Harvard Black Alumni Society. The event will be held on May 27 and will still feature a similar program to the initial event, Martin-Smith said.

“It’s an undue burden that continues to be placed upon Black students to create the change that we want to see,” Martin-Smith said.

Students at the University of Kentucky faced a similar dilemma when the school announced earlier this year it was canceling all affinity graduations.

“Following a number of federal and state policy changes and directives, the university will no longer host identity-based or special-interest graduation celebrations,” university spokesperson Jay Blanton said in a statement. “In the past, these were held outside of our official commencement ceremonies as optional celebrations and social events. We will continue to comply with the law, while celebrating all students and their distinctive achievements at our official commencement ceremonies.”

Kristopher Washington, a University of Kentucky graduate, said he was disappointed to learn that there would no longer be a Black student graduation on campus — an event he had looked forward to throughout his college career.

Washington collaborated with his fraternity brothers from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. to find an off-campus venue where they could still host a cultural graduation for their peers.

He secured support from the Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center in Lexington, where they held the event dubbed “Senior Salute,” Washington said.

The ceremony was open to all graduates and Washington’s fraternity encouraged students to wear items signifying their identity or culture.

“I feel it’s important to show that there are people coming from other places, underprivileged areas and many different backgrounds and struggles and still making it over to UK (University of Kentucky) and still getting their degree,” Washington said. “It’s a tremendous achievement.”

‘Giving us a space to celebrate’

One expert said graduations celebrating students’ ethnic identities are important because most main commencement celebrations have European roots.

Antar Tichavakunda, an assistant professor of race and higher education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, pointed out that “Pomp and Circumstance” — a song commonly played at graduations — is by English composer Edward Elgar. He also noted that the tradition of wearing graduation gowns originated in Europe during medieval times.

Many Black graduations have embraced Black culture by incorporating West African drums, strolling by Black Greek letter organizations, and featuring guest speakers who understand the Black experience, Tichavakunda said.

“Giving us a space to celebrate like we’d like to and not be policed, play music that feels more affirming and culturally responsive in a smaller setting really just makes that moment of completing a degree that much sweeter,” said Tichavakunda, who is also author of “Black Campus Life: The Worlds Black Students Make at a Historically White Institution.”

“It definitely speaks to pride and not having to dim part of your identity to be palatable to others.”

‘We stand up and stand strong’

Members of the LGBTQ+ community have also seen their traditional Lavender Graduations canceled at schools across the country due to anti-DEI policies at both the state and federal levels.

Last year, Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs from higher education, the public education system and government employers.

Jacey Thornton, executive director of Project Rainbow Utah, said that the law led to the closure of resource centers focused on gender, race and identity at colleges and universities. It also meant that universities would no longer support the Lavender Graduations that celebrate the achievements of LGBTQ+ graduates.

Thornton said Project Rainbow helped LGBTQ+ students at Weber State University and the University of Utah find ways to gather with their community.

For example, Thornton said Project Rainbow sponsored an event at a church for the University of Utah’s LGBTQ+ community where they hung pride flags and graduates wore the lavender stoles and rainbow tassels that are traditionally worn at Lavender Graduations on college campuses. Students from Westminster University and Salt Lake Community College were also invited, she said.

It’s important for LGBTQ+ students to be able to celebrate their graduation in a space where they feel welcome and embraced, Thornton said, who graduated with a master of social work from Weber State this spring.

“We are holding space to celebrate the obstacles we have overcome as queer people,” Thornton said. “It’s important that we stand up and stand strong. A lot of us lose biological family in the process of transitioning or coming out as queer. This supports that space for us to come together and find a new chosen family.”

Tichavakunda said universities’ withdrawal of support from affinity groups signals to students that they should consider schools that fully embrace their identity and offer programs to help them navigate college. For Black students, he recommended considering HBCUs.

Students who choose to attend universities despite the loss of DEI practices will need to work harder to preserve cultural traditions, Tichavakunda said.

“For future classes, I think this administration is forcing students and faculty to think creatively beyond the university and work around it,” he said. “But I don’t think this will be the end of culturally specific graduations. I just think it might be the end of universities supporting them.”

By THEO LLOYD-HUGHES

Associated Press

Barbra Banda scored the fastest hat trick in National Women’s Soccer League history on Friday night as the Orlando Pride snapped a three-game winless streak with a 3-1 victory at the Utah Royals.

The Zambian national scored three goals in the first 38 minutes of the match for the first hat trick in team history and also the first by an African player in the NWSL.

“Priority was to come away with three [points] before we go into the international break,” Pride coach Seb Hines said. “I think in our recent games, we have played well but we haven’t really gotten the results. We wanted to make sure we performed and got the result. It is great to come away from this game with three points with a nice 3-1 victory.”

Banda scored her first goal at America First Field in the sixth minute with a close-range finish from Ally Watt’s pass.

After Utah’s Brecken Mozingo tied the game in the 14th minute, Banda put the Pride (6-3-1) back in front 2-1 when she intercepted a pass, dribbled beyond Royals goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn and slotted the ball into the open net in the 37th minute.

Banda made it 3-1 a minute later with a well-struck low shot that skipped off the grass and past McGlynn from 14 yards out.

Banda is tied for the most goals in the NWSL this season with seven.

Utah (1-7-2) has one draw and four defeats in its last five games.

Up next …

Orlando vs. Houston

WHEN: June 7, 7 p.m., Inter&Co Stadium

TV: NWSL+

History repeated itself for the BYU men’s golf team on Friday, as the Cougars shot a 1-over-par 289 in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships at La Costa Golf Course in Carlsbad, California.

Of course, it wasn’t BYU’s first round, as the Cougars played the “third round” first on Thursday by themselves to avoid having to play on Sunday, and recorded the same score as they did on Friday.

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Not counting Thursday’s round, which will be inserted into the team leaderboard after the other 29 teams have completed their rounds on Sunday, No. 19 BYU sits in a tie for eighth place with No. 29 Colorado and No. 49 Cal heading into Saturday’s round.

The top 15 teams when Sunday’s third round is complete will make the cut and play a fourth round on Monday. The top eight teams after Monday’s round will advance to the match play portion of the tournament.

On Friday, former Skyline High star Tyson Shelley led the Cougars, bouncing back nicely from Thursday’s 81. Shelley carded a 1-under 71, as did his former Skyline teammate, Peter Kim.

Seniors Zac Jones (+1) and Cole Ponich (+2) added to BYU’s total on Friday, while Simon Kwan shot a non-counting 74.

Other Utahns in the field

Braxton Watts of the University of Utah, who is playing as an individual because the Utes did not qualify as a team, shot a 6-over 78 on Friday and is tied for 130th. A double bogey on No. 14 and a quadruple bogey on No. 15 doomed the Farmington High product.

Arizona State’s Preston Summerhays, who grew up in Farmington and won the Utah State Amateur as a teenager, fired a 2-over 74 on Friday and is tied for 63rd.

California startup Valar Atomics and the state of Utah are partnering to have a new nuclear test reactor operating in the state in one year, company founder Isaiah Taylor and Gov. Spencer Cox announced Friday.

Taylor said the reactor will be developed at the San Rafael Energy Research Center in Emery County, which was purchased by the state last year.

A test reactor is one that is “used for research, training, or development purposes … but has no role in producing electrical power,” according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Earlier Friday, Trump signed executive orders directing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission “to reform its culture and realign its organization” to rapidly promote nuclear power and speed up the approval process for new reactors.

“This is a really monumental day in the history of nuclear energy,” Taylor said on Bloomberg TV Friday, hailing Trump’s call to launch new reactors by July 4th, 2026, America’s 250th birthday.

“We are ready to start building nuclear in Utah,” Cox said, appearing in the Bloomberg TV segment with Taylor, speaking with hosts Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu.

“We are in an arms race right now. It’s an AI arms race with China and with Russia,” Cox said. “And we‘re losing that. If we don’t get nuclear right, we‘re in trouble.”

Utah is “well-positioned to do that,” he added. “It’s going to create jobs. It’s going to create clean energy and cheap energy for the people of the United States. And we couldn’t be more excited to be a major player in this industry.”

Using Valar’s term for an envisioned facility with thousands of small modular reactors, Mathieu asked Cox, “Governor, how soon will you cut the ribbon on a new gigasite in Utah? If they’re cutting the red tape to make that happen?”

“We hope very, very soon,” Cox replied. “Again, safety is paramount and we can do this. The technology is there.”

The American workforce has lost expertise in nuclear power, Cox added, “so we‘re getting people ready. … We want to turn on one of those test facilities by next year. I mean, that’s what the president has asked for. It’s absolutely possible that we can do that.”

There will be “other steps we have to go through to make the manufacturing happen. So this isn’t going to happen overnight,” Cox noted.

“But over the next five to 10 years, we should be deploying. Our goal is by when the Winter Olympics come back to Utah in 2034, that we will have operational nuclear reactors, lots of them from Valar and others right here in the state of Utah and all across the country.”

A spokesperson for Cox’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment Friday night.

Cox announced “Operation Gigawatt” last fall, a plan to double Utah’s energy production within the next decade, to fight what he calls the state’s “looming energy crisis.” This year, the Utah Legislature approved $10 million toward developing infrastructure for nuclear power as part of that plan.

The nation needs policies that “make it possible to build nuclear in the United States again. We need to make innovation possible,” Taylor said on Bloomberg TV. “American entrepreneurs have to be able to go out, test new nuclear designs like we were doing in the sixties and seventies and build plants all over the United States.”

Nuclear energy includes risks and raises issues for its critics and others with concerns: the waste it produces is dangerously radioactive, reactors are expensive and past accidents like those at Three Mile Island and Fukushima cast a shadow on its future.

A more rapid development pace can help make nuclear power safer, Taylor asserted.

“It’s a technology, like many others, like the chemical industry, that has to have regulation,” Taylor said. “But one of the most important things that you can do to make sure that an industry is safe is to do it often, right? … If you’re regularly building nuclear power plants, iterating, innovating, you’re actually able to build safer and safer nuclear over time.”

TechCrunch reported in February that Valar Atomics had come out of “stealth” mode with $19 million in seed funding and an initial contract to build a reactor for the Philippines Nuclear Research Institute.

Jerseys and some stray beer cans darted down from the crowd and onto the ice at Scotiabank Arena.

The Toronto Maple Leafs trailed the Florida Panthers 6-1 in the third period of Game 7 at home. A second-round series they once held a 2-0 lead in got abruptly turned on the Leafs at the will of the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Fans were not shy about showing their disappointment. Boos accompanied the items tossed toward the lackluster action. Sunday marked the seventh consecutive Game-7 loss for Toronto; the team has not made it past the conference semi-finals since 2002.

Amid the unrest, Mitch Marner sat with his head between his legs on the Toronto bench.

Marner’s ninth season with the Maple Leafs failed to have a different ending.

“It’s never easy,” the forward said during his team’s exit interviews. “There’s no words to really put to it. It’s hard. It gets harder.”

It might have been Marner’s final time donning the Toronto jersey, too. The 28-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent come July 1 at noon ET, and signs point to a separation between Marner and the team that drafted him fourth overall in 2015.

Marner is coming off a six-year, $65.4 million contract with a cap hit of $10.9 million per season. With the salary cap projected to increase from this season’s $88 million to $95.5 million for 2025-26, it is expected that Marner will test the market for a deal worth $13 million per year. It would put him just behind Auston Matthews for the highest AAV in the league.

The Utah Mammoth have around $22.31 million of cap space this summer, and they need a high-caliber, top-six scoring forward.

Could Marner land in Salt Lake City? It is not out of the realm of possibility.

“I’ve always loved my time here. I’ve loved being here,” Marner said, in the past tense, of Toronto. “I haven’t processed anything yet. Still so fresh. Losing sucks.”

“It’s so fresh that it’s tough to really think about anything right now about going forward and future-wise. … Next coming weeks, I’ll sit down with my wife and we‘ll start talking and trying to figure out what the next steps are.”

Marner is hitting the open market at his prime. He had 102 points (27 goals, 75 assists) in 81 regular-season games while being one of Toronto’s best defensive forwards. He will likely get calls from the whole league. It is not often that someone of his talent is available. Success in hockey comes from more than one player; Marner, though, could change the complexion of a franchise.

In his cumulative time with Toronto, Marner logged the fifth-most points in Leaf history and the fourth-most assists. It was the postseason, though, that has stained his and the core four’s legacy. During this playoff run, Marner had 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) in 13 games. He had five points in seven games against the Panthers — only one goal and zero contributions in Game 7.

Could it be the external pressure? Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk gave his take following his team’s series win.

“Sometimes you feel bad for them because they have some unbelievable players and a great team. I was actually saying this last night to some of the guys — if their team was not in Toronto dealing with all the crazy circus stuff outside of it, they would be an unbelievable team,” Tkachuk said on the Spittin Chiclets podcast. “They just have so much to deal with, and I feel bad. We don’t have to deal with that in Florida. I think that’s what makes me and my team so lucky. You almost use that against them — the pressure that these guys have to deal with day in and day out.”

Marner said “there’s pressure everywhere,” but it is no secret that playing the Canadian NHL markets comes with a greater level of scrutiny.

Utah could quiet things down for Marner. A smaller-market team, a fan base that has yet to ever turn on its players and an upward trajectory for success — and hopes for a championship — in the ensuing years as the Mammoth exit the rebuild.

It would be a lot of money to spend for a long term — likely seven years — all tied up in one person. It would be a lot of trust in one guy to become an immediate leader and difference maker. Whether those risks — and salary-cap adjustments — are worth it will be up to general manager Bill Armstrong.

“Ryan [Smith] is definitely, and the ownership group, is capable of making sure that we can pretty much get anything done in the league that we need to get done. But it doesn’t mean that you spend unwisely,” Armstrong said of his team’s approach to the offseason. “Not to say that if there’s a player there that makes sense, that addresses our needs — we‘re going to go after that player.”

If the Mammoth do not win the Marner sweepstakes — or choose not to participate — here are some other unrestricted free agents they could look to target.

Nikolaj Ehlers is a left wing on the Winnipeg Jets who is coming off a seven-year, $42 million contract. The 29-year-old had 63 points (24 goals, 39 assists) in 69 regular-season games. Ehlers’ consistency is a strength — he has had 20-plus goal seasons for eight of his 10 years in the NHL. He was a top-six stalwart for the Jets, who was third in points on the team. Ehlers is a finisher, something Utah was missing at times in its inaugural campaign.

The Vancouver Canucks’ Brock Boeser could bring some size and scoring touch, too. The 28-year-old right winger had 50 points (25 goals, 25 assists) in 75 games and stands at 6-foot-1, 208 pounds. Of note, Boeser’s agent Ben Hankinson also represents Nick Bjugstad (who raved about Utah). Boeser’s last contract was three years, $19.95 million with a $6.650 million AAV. This summer is his time to get paid.

“It weighs on me a lot. All I want to do is win,” Boeser said during Vancouver’s exit interviews after it missed the playoffs. “I definitely think that’s going to play a big part — if I do make it [to free agency] — in my decision.”

Sam Bennett (Florida Panthers) and Ryan Donato (Chicago Blackhawks) offer two different looks at center. Bennett, 28, has been a key piece to a Stanley Cup-winning team in Florida. He plays with an edge and had 51 points (25 goals, 26 assists) in 76 games. Bennett’s last contract was four years, $17 million. Donato has been a bright spot on the mightily struggling Blackhawks. The 29-year-old posted 62 points (31 goals, 31 assists) in 80 games and just finished his two-year, $4 million deal. No doubt a cheaper option.

Armstrong was also not hesitant to bring in some older guys last offseason. The balance between the veterans (like Ian Cole, Kevin Stenlund, Olli Määttä, Sergachev) and the young talent (Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Clayton Keller) was one of the Mammoth’s greatest strengths. So, Utah could look to age up through free agency, too.

John Tavares (34), Brock Nelson (33) and Matt Duchene (34) are all experienced centers on the market. Tavares had 74 points (38 goals, 36 assists) in 75 games with Toronto and is closing his seven-year, $77 million contract. Nelson — who was traded from the New York Islanders to the Avalanche at the deadline — had 56 points (26 goals, 30 assists) in 80 games. His last contract was six years, $36 million. Duchene had 82 points (30 goals, 52 assists) in 82 games for the Dallas Stars and was on a one-year, $3 million deal.

There are many directions Utah could go with free agency. Armstrong is taking a balanced approach, though, and thinking big picture instead of making a headlining splash just because his team has the means now.

One college in the state has decided to go beyond what’s required and slash more from its budget than Utah lawmakers have demanded.

Salt Lake Community College is supposed to come up with $5.2 million in reductions under the Legislature’s plan to reduce higher education spending overall by about $60.5 million.

The school announced in a Thursday email to faculty and staff, though, that it found an extra $581,620 that it could trim for a total of $5.8 million.

The college described the additional money as “surplus identified through reductions” and said that while it surpasses HB265’s requirements, it aligns with the school’s “Vision Matrix” — what SLCC calls its strategic plan.

Initially, the school last week said it would push to cut $360,000 more than what’s required, but that number jumped even higher in the updated proposal Thursday.

“In reviewing the language of HB265, SLCC found that, if applied thoughtfully, the bill could further the college’s efforts to fulfill its mission,” school President Greg Peterson wrote last week in the email shared with The Salt Lake Tribune.

SLCC’s strategic plan aims to nearly double its enrollment up to 50,000 students by 2027. It was at 27,400 this fall, data shows. The college also wants to increase degree completion to 50% in two years; it’s at 33% now.

And SLCC is pushing to increase the median earnings of its graduates by $5,000 in the same time frame. At this point, students with a SLCC degree are making about $48,000 annually, according to federal numbers.

Peterson said by looking into what the school could cut and consolidate, it found more areas to save and, hopefully, earn back money from the state to reinvest toward meeting those goals.

The systemwide budget cuts have been pushed by state leaders who say they want to see more efficiency and less “administrative bloat” in the state’s eight public colleges and universities.

The demand under HB265 is that schools reduce majors or programs that have few graduates and lead to lower paying jobs. Lawmakers laid out a way for schools to eventually get the money back — if they show that the funding will be reinvested in high-wage degrees that lead to jobs the state needs.

That task is slightly harder for the state’s two community colleges — SLCC and Snow College — which largely offer certificates and more general associate degrees, meaning they have fewer academic programs in specific fields to cut. Their goal is mostly to graduate students with a two-year degree.

Snow College similarly announced its plans this month, aiming to hit the $1.7 million it’s required to cut. As the smallest public college in the state, with about 5,600 students, President Stacee McIff said the process has been “stressful.”

“The dollar amount was intimidating,” McIff told the college’s board of trustees while presenting on May 5.

At SLCC, Peterson has previously expressed concern about the brief window schools have had to draft their plans. The first version of their proposals was due to the Utah Board of Higher Education this month, with a formal presentation to follow in June. Final approval from the Legislature will come in August and September.

Here’s a breakdown of what the two colleges are expecting to do.

SLCC cuts positions, programs

Salt Lake Community College has proposed eliminating 50 positions. Of those, 15 are already vacant. The rest, according to Peterson’s email, will come through layoffs and retirements.

Overall, five are administrative positions.

Down the line, the president hopes to add nine new faculty positions with reinvestment funds; the people losing their jobs can apply for those. Most of the people impacted should have been informed by last week.

In his email, Peterson said he appreciates the school’s effort to treat “each impacted employee with respect and care.”

“While this has been a somewhat difficult journey, I am proud that our process has been collaborative, measured and compassionate while keeping in mind the needs of our students,” he wrote.

Peterson presented the overall plan to SLCC’s board of trustees during a closed session Wednesday. The school cited Utah law that allows meetings to be closed while discussing personnel issues.

The board voted to approve the plan, with minor changes, after that private discussion, the school said in an email sent campuswide Thursday.

The proposal also includes cutting 237 courses “that are not directly connected to the requirements of an instructional program,” Peterson said.

And SLCC is reducing certificate and degree offerings down from 195 to 147. That reduction of 48 programs includes 12 that are being consolidated.

The program cuts include associate degrees with a focus in anthropology, history, philosophy and religious studies, sociology, writing studies, accounting, finance, marketing, computer science information systems, fashion merchandising, animation and graphic design.

The school says those have “low enrollment and low completion rates.”

“As a reminder, SLCC does regularly review and modify its academic programs to provide the best learning and post-completion outcomes for our students, and the proposed reinvestment plan reflects similar work,” Peterson said.

The School of Arts, Communication and Media will be entirely eliminated. Its programs will be folded into other schools and departments.

The college’s Grand Theater will remain in operation, even without the art school. But SLCC is permanently closing its long-standing Community Writing Center.

The school said in its message Thursday that it hopes to reinvest money in its technical programs through its Salt Lake Technical College — something the Legislature has pushed — as well as associate degrees in business and health sciences.

Snow College turns to voluntary resignations

McIff said she hopes that the cuts, in the long run, will make Snow operate more efficiently.

The school will release its full plan to faculty after it gets initial approval from the Utah Board of Higher Education, she said.

At this point, the bulk of the money will come through having fewer faculty and staff — but all of the reductions are coming through voluntary retirements, McIff said.

“We have come up with a plan that does not force anyone to leave,” she told the school’s trustees.

There are 25 employees at the college who have opted for voluntary retirement. A few of those positions will need to be filled, but not all of them, added Tim Tingey, the vice president for finance and administrative services. And new hires, he said, tend to start in a lower pay bracket, saving money.

The staff who are leaving will be paid out a severance based on their years of service and salary rate, with a cap that the school did not disclose.

The school will eliminate the position of vice president for external affairs. And it will restructure its athletic director position to include more responsibilities.

Snow College is also discontinuing a handful of “redundant degrees and certificates,” McIff said, but the school has not yet said what is on that list.

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