Lucy Biles is set to defend her home XC course- photo by Kyle Perry
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Herriman High School will play host to their annual Cross Country invitational Friday night. The races will be run on the traditional course, with a few slight changes from last year. Apparently some building in the area has changed the location of the start and finish slightly, but this should only make things better.The course is known as one of the hardest in the state, and many will tell you that no other course can compare in difficulty. In fact, it may be one of the hardest courses in the entire country. Adding to the level of difficulty is the fact that it has been rainy, and the course is entirely trail, so it could be a big muddy mess this afternoon.
There are benefits of running on a hard course like the Herriman course. Running on a difficult course gets you ready for whatever challenges face you with courses in the future. If you can learn to conquer a difficult course, and get used to it, then the flat or less technical courses seem much easier and you can run at a higher level. A good example of this for me came in college. We always ran 5k in High School XC, and then all the sudden the races were 10k, which made 5k seem much less difficult. I expect most who race at Herriman to be a little better prepared for the state championship course.
Some of the teams set to compete Friday night, along with the home team, include American Fork, Bingham, Timpanogos, Park City, Pine View, Alta, Jordan, to name a few.
The American Fork boys are ranked #1 in the SW region and the Bingham Miners are ranked #5. Just behind Bingham is Timpanogos ranked #6 in the SW. With three teams ranked in the top 6 in the region, and the host team Herriman also receiving votes, It will be an interesting showdown tonight. Individually, Kramer Morton of Alta is having a great season, and the only person to beat him so far this season is Connor Mcmillan of AF. That was at the grass relays where they didn’t get a chance to race head to head, so this will be the individual matchup to watch. Binghams Andrew Brewer can run with these guys, and Rory Linkletter of Herriman can as well, though he may be out sick for the meet.
On the girls side of things, Bingham has run very well so far this season, led by Marlee Mitchell . Marlee has really stepped up big to fill the shoes of last years XC state champ Emily Rich. She leads the Bingham Charge and will hope to go to battle with Lucy Biles of Herriman. Herriman is one of the top in the state this season across all divisions. Her talent, combined with the fact that it is her home meet, will make Biles the favorite in the race. Tavia Dutson of Jordan is also running well and will join the lead pack of Mitchell and Biles. Whitney Rich of Bingham and Mary Christensen of Timpanogos are also having great seasons and should be near the front. In girls the team competition Bingham and Timpanogos are both ranked top 10 in the SW region. Watch for a close battle between these two talented teams.
Tonights races begin at 3:00 with the spectator/ middleschool race. The JV races will be at 4:40 for Girls and 5:20 for boys, with the varsity races at 5:50 and 6:20pm