For a second year, Layton native David Liechty finished opposite defending champion Bowen Mauss in a 19-hole quarterfinal on Friday at the Utah Men’s State Amateur in Midway.

Mauss, the No. 49 seed, upended Liechty by a single hole again after defeating the BYU signee in last year’s semifinal. Liechty, 1-up through No. 16, missed an eagle opportunity on No. 17, and Mauss buried an 8-foot putt on No. 18 to extend the match.

“I’ve never played that box that far up,” Liechty said of No. 19.

“I was kind of trying to figure out the number and how far I wanted to hit it, and I just hit a really bad 3-wood. I hit it nowhere near the center of the face, so there’s not much you can really do about that. I almost chipped in for birdie, but left it a little short.”

Liechty bogeyed just twice (No. 7/No. 11) in Friday’s quarterfinal match before carding a third bogey on the pair’s playoff hole.

“The game plan was pretty similar all week,” Liechty said. “… I think Bowen also played pretty mistake-free, and that’s just what tends to happen, is whoever makes the least amount of mistakes is the guy who ends up winning. I bogeyed our first playoff hole, and you just can’t do that.”

The 128th edition of the annual tournament returned to Soldier Hollow Golf Course this week for the first time since 2022, when Liechty made his first State Am appearance while a letterman at Layton High.

Liechty made his first finals appearance with Simon Kwon in 2023, reached the Round of 32 in 2024, and sniffed the finals again with a semifinal loss to Mauss in 2025. None other than Mauss was waiting for him in this year’s quarterfinals.

Mauss, a native Draper and graduate of Corner Canyon High School, is entering his sophomore season at Arizona State.

“I’m definitely frustrated with it – I felt like, and I know I could have beaten Bowen, but he’s obviously a really good player,” Liechty said. “Just missed a couple shots coming down the stretch, and you can’t really do that against a player like (Mauss).”

This offseason saw Liechty transfer from Utah Tech to BYU following a historic freshman campaign as UTT’s first-ever multimedalist during the school’s six-year history in Division I.

SEMIFINALS UNDERWAY

The semifinal table was official as of press time, with Mauss, the No. 49 seed, battling No. 37 KJ Ofahengaue of Lehi, and Utah State’s Noah Moody, the No. 10 seed, slotted against No. 46 Cameron Crawford of Sandy. The winner of those two matches will contest a 36-hole grand finale on Saturday at 7 a.m. at Soldier Hollow.

In Friday’s third quarterfinal, Box Elder alum and Providence signee Kanyon DeRyke fell short of Moody by two holes after wearing the Aggie down to as little as 1-up through No. 17. Moody birdied a final Par 3 to advance to the afternoon’s semifinal round.

Jackson Mauss, the older brother of Bowen and an incoming junior at BYU, fell to Crawford as the No. 6 seed in a 23-hole playoff.

Connect with Standard-Examiner sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.