Ben Saarel at Pinview 2013 - Photo by Kyle Perry
This weekend in St. George, Pine View High School hosted their annual invite. Ben Saarel made the trek from Park City to St. George with state records on his mind. He won the 800, 1600, and 3200, doing so in impressive fashion. His 3200m solo effort was the second fastest ever run in the state of Utah, with his time of 8:55.27 coming just short of Luke Puskedra’s time of 8:54.40. He also posted a state leading 4:16 in the 1600m and a 1:54 in the 800m.
His 3200m run was especially impressive for two reasons. First of all, he is now one of only two athletes to ever break the 9 minute barrier in the state of Utah. Also impressive is how he took the race into his own hands and ran solo nearly the whole way. He won by over 30 seconds and may have surpassed the all time record had he not had to deal with lapping other athletes. It did appear that he had a little collision with lapped traffic on the final turn. He will have a few more opportunities to get the all time state record as the season progresses.
The meet was a team scored meet and the boys and girls meets were very different. Orem ran away from the competition on the backs of Summer Harper and Samantha Reeves, as they beat out Park City by over 30 points. The boys competition was close all around, as Alta and Herriman tied with 73 points, and Woods Cross and Desert hills just behind.
Some of the notable performances of the meet :
Summer Harper won the girls 3200m with a 10:50 beating out Alyssa Snyder of Park City. Snyder won the girls 1600m with a time of 5:04.
Jake Heslington of Timpanogos had a good weekend, but it was overshadowed as he was 2nd to Saarel in both the 1600 and 3200m. Jake posted a 9:27 in the 3200m and a 4:19 in the 1600m
Samantha Reeves of Orem won double gold in both the 100m (13.03) and the 200m (26.52)
Brad Wulfenstein of Desert Hills won the 110 hurdles with a 15.14.
Adam Thompson of Hurricane won the 100m in 11.10 and the long jump with a leap of 21-04.75
Cam Dopp of Woods Cross won the 300 Hurdles with a great season opener of 39.38
State XC Champ didn’t get much opportunity to run on the indoor track, but didn’t lose a step as Aimee Bryson of cedar won the 800 with 2:17.16
Alta won boys 4x400 with a 3:26, a great place to start the season
Emery Larson of Millard won both the Long Jump and High Jump
Blake Kvarfordt of Desert Hills won the shot 49-01.