Day 1 of the BYU invite kicked off Wednesday in Provo with the Multi events, where the winner is crowned Utah’s Greatest Athlete. With 5 events on Wednesday for the boys and 4 events for the girls, they came back again Thursday to finish the rest of their events. Also on the day was the 2000m steeple chase.
Decathlon: In the boys decathlon, the title of Utah’s greatest athlete for 3a-5a boys actually went to an athlete from Wyoming. Reno Averill of Star Valley won the event with a score of 5931 points, beating out Cameron Call of Weber High School who scored 5503. Trace Arbon of Davis was 3rd with 5440. Averill posted the best mark in the 100m and the 400m en route to the win.
In the 1a-2a Boys Adam Platt of Bryce Valley was the Winner.
Heptathlon: In the Girls Heptathlon, Nicole Laws of Provo won 4 of the 7 individual events en route to her overall win in the 3a-5a Girls. Her talent in such a variety of events allowed her to score big in those events, and actually was no worse than 4th in any of the events. That’s what it takes to win the title of Utah’s Greatest Athlete. An additional note on Nicole's performance is that it is the BYU Invite meet record, which is very impressive considering the quality of competition the meet always provides.
In the 1a-2a Heptathlon, Emeri Larsen Dominated and won going away. She would have finished 4th overall in the meet and just like Laws, Larsen won 4 of the 7 events en route to the win.
Girls 2000m Steeple: The steeple is an event not run often in high school, and so athletes have to capitalize on the opportunity. Rachel Bocanegra of Timpanogos did just that as she won the girls 2000m Steeplechase with a time of 7:32.74. She was followed by Sierra Malm of Salem Hills and Abigail Hurst of East. Catania Holman of Panguitch won the 1a-2a girls steeple and was 3rd overall.
Boys 2000m Steeple: In the 3a-5a Boys Steeple, Mckay Mace of Timpanogos pulled away from a great 1-2 punch from Westlake of Tanner Dupaix and David Bowers. Mace’s time was 6:26.29.
In the 1a-2a Steeple Kyler Norris of Panguitch posted the top time at 7:10.