Sugarhouse Park offers is home to the Highland Invitational and State- Photo by Kyle Perry-
Up to this point in the year, rankings and predictions have been purely speculation. This weekend should provide real insight into how summer training went. For some we will find it went well, and for others there will be a lot of work to do. For a lot of teams, this weekend will be the season opener. Some opened at the Premier invite and the Hurricane invite, but pretty much everyone will be racing this weekend. Today at Sugarhouse Park, Highland High School will host the Highland Invitational. Currently on Runnercard there are 50 teams entered, so it should be a big day. Go check out their entry list by clicking here.
Here are just a few things to keep an eye on at the meet.
Boys-
Bingham HS perfect scored the Premier invite last weekend. They looked even better than we gave them credit for in the season preview. Team leader Andrew Brewer should be in the mix for the individual win.
Ogden will be bringing a team that should be at the top of the 4A. There are a lot of teams in the mix but today will show if they are ready to bring the heat in their new classification. They are ranked 6th in the SW region, so if they live up to that it will be a big day for the tigers
Also entered is an Alta team that is an Unknown. Kramer Morton was last year’s state champion and should be in the top pack today, but behind him we are excited to see who emerges for this team.
Skyview will be at the meet, which means Connor Mantz will hopefully make an appearance. Utah’s top returner from Foot Locker, we are excited to see where is at after summer training.
West Lake will be at the meet today. Austin Brower is their hope for a state champion. Keep an eye on him today. They are a potential dark horse from their very deep region.
Rowland Hall comes from a smaller classification and might not get a ton of hype for the overall team win, but what we are really interested in is how their team will fill in behind their top guys Oftedal and Westermann. They are our favorite from 2A.
Herriman, Davis, and Riverton are also entered and are on our Hot List for teams to watch. With Riverton ranked #3 in the SW region, Herriman just out of the rankings, and Davis always putting something good together, keep an eye on any one of these teams showing up in a big way today.
Girls-
Mountain Crest is favored as the top team in Utah along with AF, and they are also ranked 6th in the SW region. Today we will get a chance to see if they are ready for a huge season.
Park City is the top team from the 3A. Although they lost some good girls from last year they return some very strong runners and should rebuild well. They are 8th in the SW rankings so there are high hopes for this team on a national scale.
Ogden HS is also ranked highly in the SW region, and what we are most interested in from this team is how strong Sarah Feeny is. She could be a National contender if she picks up where she left off
Herriman also brings a national contender to the plate in Lucy Biles. The amazing thing about her is how she always has her best days when it matters most. If she has a slow start to the season there’s no need to worry, and if she has a good start to the year everyone across the country should worry.
Bingham girls didn’t get enough credit in our season preview but showed last week at the premier invite that they have some great talent. They are just out of the top 10 rankings in the SW region. Let’s see how they stack up against some deeper competition.
Davis is another team to watch as they might be underrated. They lost some strong runners but that hasn’t hurt them too much historically, as they always have such a deep pool to draw from. Today will be an indication of where they are at.
Lehi is one more team we are excited to keep an eye on as we feel like this could be their year to shake things up.
Rowland Hall is favored in the 2A and we are interested to see how well Emily Sundquist prepared in the off season.
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