Completed Event: Women's Basketball at Eastern Kentucky on March 19, 2026 , Loss , 58, to, 72
Final Score
Women's Basketball
58
at Eastern Kentucky
72
The University of Utah Athletics
Utah Women's Basketball Inks Top Recruit
11/10/2000 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 9, 2000
Salt Lake City - BY LYA WODRASKA THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
The simple act of putting pen to paper ended one of the most expensive recruiting wars in Utah girls basketball history.
Lone Peak's Lana Sitterud followed through on her commitment by signing with the University of Utah on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period.
Other schools that wooed the 5-foot-10 guard were Oregon, Washington, Washington State and BYU. Sitterud's final decision came down to Oregon, Utah and BYU.
Sitterud committed to the Utes in August while living in Venezuela with her parents, who are serving an LDS Church mission. She still allowed BYU coaches to make a home visit. Shortly after Cougar Coach Trent Shippen and an assistant flew to Venezuela to meet with Sitterud, Utah Coach Elaine Elliott and an assistant endured the same 10-hour flight just to make sure their star recruit would not change her mind.
While the Utes might have been nervous that Sitterud was waffling, she said that wasn't really the case.
"I can imagine a lot of people misinterpreted what was going on and thought I might go to BYU," said Sitterud, who returned to Utah in October. "My parents wanted me to go through the whole process, and I don't regret doing that for one second."
BYU and Utah often go head-to-head for recruits, but Sitterud is one of the few players seriously recruited by both schools who chose Utah over BYU and is the best in-state player Utah has landed since American Fork's Julie Krommenhoek and Alta's Alli Bills in 1994.
"I really appreciated the efforts that BYU and Utah spent in recruiting me, and I don't hold any grudges against BYU," she said. "Utah just did a better job of recruiting me. I love the coaches and the players there. I want to become the best player I can be, and I think I can do that at Utah."
Two years ago, Sitterud became the first sophomore to earn The Salt Lake Tribune's Most Valuable Player award after guiding the Knights to the Class 4-A state championship. She averaged 16.6 points, seven assists and six rebounds last year, guiding Lone Peak to the state quarterfinals.
"We're excited for Lana," Lone Peak coach Shauna Kay said. "Elaine is going to make Lana a better player than I ever could."
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