The 2013 Region 3 XC Championships are being held at the Cottonwood Complex in Cottonwood Heights on Thursday, Oct 10. This is one of the biggest weekends of the season. To get to the state championships you have to bring your “A game” at the region meets. Region 3 includes contenders for both the individual title, as well as the team title. The top 4 teams from the Region, as well as the top 3 individuals advance on to the state championship, which is only 2 weeks away.
The preview is written based on best times in the meet simulator. This doesn’t take in to account difficulty of courses, or discrepancy in course length, or anything but times, so if you feel like a team is over or under-rated, please post it in the comments or email me. I love hearing from you!
Boys Preview- The Individual race in this region should be a lot closer than the team race. Last year’s State Champion Kramer Morton comes in to the meet off a win at the Park City Invitational. State 1600m Champion Andrew Brewer from Bingham comes in from a great win at the Westlake Classic. He made up a lot of ground on Clayson Shumway over the last little bit to pull off a signature win. Both Brewer and Morton have strong finishes and great speed, so it should be one of the tightest finishes of any region. Caleb Walker of Bingham has been running very well as of late and is another top pick in this race. Christian Allen of Copper Hills and Braydon Lavery of Alta are two more that could fill out the top 5 in the race.
Bingham enters the team race ranked #18 in the nation, and coming off a big win at the Westlake XC Classic. At Westlake they beat Lone Peak, Westlake, Davis, and a very short handed American Fork team. The win should be a big motivation booster, and the Miners could ride that wave the rest of the season. Alta has a pretty good 1-2 punch, but it is not likely they pull the upset over Bingham. In fact, Copper Hills actually has a smaller spread 1-5 and is picked #2 in the Milesplit team rankings for the region. Copper Hills ranking over Alta likely comes because they have run on some faster courses than Alta has, but when they have raced head to head Alta has been able to beat Copper Hills 3 times. That battle is close and could swing either way but it should go to Alta, as it has all season so far. Brighton and Jordan will be battling for that 4th and final qualifying spot.
Girls Preview- The Girls preview would read about Identical to the Boys, but with different names. Marlee Mitchell ran an amazing race at the Westlake XC Classic. She took the lead pretty early and slowly pulled away until she had a lead so big the pack could hardly see her. She pushed to the line winning by over 17 seconds. She enters the meet as a strong favorite. Her biggest competition will come from her teammate Whitney Rich. Rich is ranked 2nd in the region and also looks great this season. Tavia Dutson of Jordan is talented enough to run with anyone, so she could be hoping for an upset on the day. Aubrey Monson, also of Jordan, enters the meet ranked 4th, and it will be a shake up between her and Bingham’s 3rd and 4th runners.
Bingham is an overwhelming favorite in the team race. They are capable of scoring in the low 20’s against their region foes, and will be focusing on moving on to state, and figuring out how to compete with National #1 Davis. Jordan is also a very good team, and will be looking to score very low in this meet. It isn’t likely that any of the other teams upset these two, but you never know. Copper Hills and Alta are the picks to grab the last 4 qualifiers, with Brighton being the first team on the fence trying to get in to the big dance.