1994 Bingham Miners & Mountain View Bruins
The debate comes up in every state that has produced championship and national championship programs, who is the greatest? What is the benchmark? By who do we hold the top teams of today against to determine team strength and cross country prognostication?
During the recorded years of the late 80's and 90's two programs set the standard for the nation. Bingham high school and Mountain View high school battled back and forth in girls and boys teams producing multiple national championship programs. Of those years, perhaps no year carrries as much impact and drama as the 94' duel between Mountain View and Bingham. Imagine, two teams that could claim National Championship status in the same state at the same time. In 1994 the National Championship rightfully belonged to both Bingham and Mountain View who produced team performances unequalled nationally.
1994 Footlocker West Regional
Led by Jeff Arbogast the Miners from Bingham ran 78:06 over the 5000 meter Woodward Park course at the Footlocker West Region Championships. With Corbin Talley coming in at 15:09, Jeff Hopkinson 15:42, Ryan Bullock 15:43, Lee Lorenz 15:55, Curtis Moore 15:57, and Alexander Speed 16:05. The superb team performance would be ranked #3 all-time on the 5000 meter course behind Meads 77:22 and Thousand Oaks 77:59 team performances in 1993. Not only an epic performance at Footlocker the Miners also avenged a State Championship loss to Mountain View. Before 1994 there were only two teams in prep history to record faster times over the course, since that year only three teams have bettered the 78 minute barrier with Bingham's total team time of 78:06 still regarded as an all-time great team performance. The total team time of 78:06 is the fastest team time ever ran by a Utah team on the Woodward Park 5000 meter course. Consider that in the history of the Footlocker West course only 5 teams have run faster, all of which have been considered in the top ten nationally all-time programs.
In this race Bingham avenged the state championship loss to Mountain View. Mountain View completed the Woodward Park course with a total team time of 79:01. The bruin's were led by Dula Parkinson 15:12, Zack James 15:14 with the latter three producing an obvious off day coming in Wade Allen 16:09, Ryan Andrus 16:10, and Andy Farrer 16:16. With Allen coming in #3 for the team it was clear this was not Mountain View's best performance as Allen is usually the #5 man on the team. Lets look at the Mountain View state performance.
1994 Utah State Championships
This year Bingham would finish 2nd to the Dave Houle led Mountian View Bruins at the old Utah State Championship course in truly an epic battle of the top two programs in the nation. Running a total team time of 77:10 to Mountain Views 76:33 the Miners brought in all five runners in the top 20 with four in the top 10 while the Bruins had all five runners in the top 15 with the top four also in the top 10. Led by Talley's 15:03 the Bingham Miners filed in four runners in the top ten with Curtis Moore 5th in 15:15, Lee Lorenz 8th in 15:30, Ryan Bullock 9th in 15:31, and Jeff Hopkinson 17th in 15:51. On the other hand, Mountain View had the top two finishers with Zack James running an impressive 14:54 for the victory and Dula Parkinson finishing 2nd in 15:01. Rounding out the top five were Ryan Andrus 7th in 15:03, Andy Farrer 10th in 15:32, and Wade Allen 15th in 15:43. Mountain Views 76:33 remains as the best total team time in Utah history. With Bingham's route of Mountain View at the Footlocker West Region Championships it is clear these two teams are even.
| Mountain View 1994 | Coach Dave Houle | Bingham 1994 | Coach Jeff Arbogast | |
| Zack James | 14:54* | Corbin Talley | 15:03* | |
| Dula Parkinson | 15:01* | Curtis Moore | 15:15* | |
| Ryan Andrus | 15:23* | Lee Lorenz | 15:30* | |
| Andy Farrar | 15:33* | Ryan Bullock | 15:31* | |
| Wade Allen | 15:43* | Jeff Hopkinson | 15:42** | |
| Alexander Speed | 16:05** | |||
| *State Meet | **Footlocker West |
| Dave Houle: Mountain VIew | Jeff Arbogast: Bingham |
 |
 |
In a tale of two highly competitive Hall of Fame bound coaches, Jeff Arbogast and Dave Houle were gems in the State of Utah distance running. Perhaps no other year featured the expertise, the precision, and the programs that the 94' Bruin/Miner rivalry produced. Combining for over 70 State Championships between the two of them in over five sports, it is no wonder both were elected into the NFHS Hall of Fame.
During that epic season while Mountain View won the Orem Invitational and State meet Bingham would win the Vale Invitational, Murray Invitational, and Footlocker West. While it is clear Mountain View did not have their best team performance at Woodward Park, what is clear is that these teams are the consensus #1 & #2 teams in Utah State history.
Being defined as the greatest team in state history serves as a benchmark for great teams to come. It demands individually epic performances against nationally ranked programs. Finishing the season is just as important as having an undefeated season. While it is obvious that National Championship programs are considered in the list it by no means discredits a team from recognition for not achieving such. During the 80's and 90's national rankings were determined by a paper polling system. National rankings as determined by one man covering the national spectrum, so it is clear these rankings may not always be accurate. For example, the 94' rankings listed Bingham #4 with Mountain View #3 behind Kingwood, Texas at #1 and Thousand Oaks, California #2. Upon further research both the Kingwood and Thousand Oaks teams never produced a spread across a 3 mile course, let alone at 5000 feet elevation comparible to the Miners and Bruins squads. What remains a constant was that due to the evenness of these two programs the fact they battled back and forth each week was why they were ranked behind Kingwood and Thousand Oaks.
Co-National Champions?
The 94' Mountain Views top three of Dula Parkinson, Zack James, and Ryan Andrus were superior to the Houser twins and Lewis Jones led team from Kingwood. While the Bingham miners were just as close, upon further reflection one could argue that Mountain View and Bingham could have legitimately claimed Co-National Champion team status. It would seem the only team capable of defeating Bingham was Mountain View and so it goes vice versa. Bingham Miner Corbin Talley claims the 94' team was vastly superior to the 95' National Champion Miners squad. It is clear these two teams were superiorly coached with Bingham's Jeff Arbogast and Mountain View's Dave Houle both elected into the High School Hall of Fame.
In a head to head comparison of top times for each of the top four teams nationally for 1994 Bingham came out ahead with a 27-28 duel meet scoring victory over Kingwood, TX. In the same scoring format if you take Thousand Oaks, CA CIF state performance on Woodward and compare it head to head with Bingham's team performance on Woodward Bingham defeats Thousand Oaks 23-32 in duel meet scoring. In the same scoring format, if we take the Harrier National Championship Kingwood and compete them against the Mountain View, Bingham, and Thousand Oaks squads we come up with the following National Ranking with Mountain View coming in #1 with 37 points and Bingham coming in second with 41 points, Kingwood 3rd with 46 points and Thousand Oaks 4th with 86 points. It was clear in the hypothetical race combining best individual performances from State and Footlocker that both Kingwood and Thousand Oaks could not match the team depth of either Mountain View or Bingham. Just using statistics we can say unequivocally that the Harrier rankings were controversial. Based upon final meet performance it is clear that Bingham holds the upper hand, with this in mind, we rank Mountain View and Bingham the 1994 Co-National Champions.
| 1. Bingham | 1994 | Footlocker West Team Champions 78:06 team time |
| 1. Mountain View | 1994 | State Meet Champions 76:33 team time |
| 3. Orem | 1980 | 3A State Champions; 15:33 team average |
| 4. Bingham | 1995 | Harrier National Champions |
| 5. Mountain View | 1999 | Harrier National Champions |
| 6. Orem | 1982 | 3A State Champions; 15:47 team average |
| 7. Mountain View | 2002 | Harrier National Champions |
| 8. Mountain View | 1998 | Harrier National Champions |
| 9. Bingham | 1996 | Harrier #3 Nationally Ranked |
| 10. Mountain View | 1996 | Harrier #4 Nationally Ranked |
| Dave Houle - Mountain View | YEAR | Jeff Arbogast - Bingham |
| Girls National Champions* | 1989 | No Rank |
| Boys 14th Nationally / Girls National Champions* | 1990 | Boys 8th Nationally* |
| Girls 3rd Nationally* | 1991 | Boys 4th Nationally |
| Boys 16th Nationally* | 1992 | No Rank |
| Boys 5th Nationally* / Girls 2nd Nationally* | 1993 | No Rank |
| Boys Co-National Champions* / Girls 5th Nationally* | 1994 | Boys Co-National Champions |
| Boys 3rd Nationally / Girls 3rd Nationally* | 1995 | Boys National Champions* |
| Boys 4th Nationally / Girls 2nd Nationally* | 1996 | Boys 3rd Nationally* |
| Boys 5th Nationally* / Girls 6tth Nationally* | 1997 | Boys 6th Nationally |
| Boys National Champions* / Girls 12th Nationally | 1998 | Girls 11th Nationally* |
| Boys National Champions* | 1999 | Boys 14th Nationally/Girls National Champions* |
| Boys National Champions* / Girls 6th Nationally | 2000 | Girls 4th Nationally* |
| Boys 14th Nationally* / Girls 6th Nationally* | 2001 | Girls 14th Nationally |
| Boys National Champions* / Girls 25th Nationally | 2002 | No Rank |
| Boys 10th Nationally* / Girls 20th Nationally* | 2003 | No Rank |
| Boys 5th Nationally* / Girls state champions* | 2004 | No Rank |
| Boys 5th Nationally* | 2005 | No Rank |
| * = State Champions |
**Dave Houle also led the Mountain View Girls to state championship vitories from 1985 to 1988, many of those years the Bruin woman probably were nationally ranked if not national champions. We are confident that Houle's 1988 girls squad were the top team Nationally.