There weren't many high school meets in Utah this past week, but the size of the one there was more than made up for it.
It's always a little unclear what an indoor meet tells you about the outdoor season ahead, but nobody is going to emerge from the UHSTCA meet on Friday and Saturday taking Davis lightly. And there are plenty enough reasons to g around.
Brad Nye's 4:13.56 to take the 1600 would be one reason not to take them lightly. Adelyn Jones going 9.09/9.16 in the 60 hurdles would be another. A 1-2 in the 60 meter dash from Sylvia Harrison (7.83) and Adelyn Jones (7.98) might be thought of as piling on. Or what about Seth Fortin's 7.01 to win the boys' 60? Shea Martinez smoked the 800 field in 2:13.74. Brad Nye didn't give himself a lot of margin, but that 1:53.01 in the boys' 800 was a winner and was a very fast time for this point in the year. Piling on just a little, Davis won three relays, including a 4:06.21 from the girls' 4x400 and an eye-popping 9:41.73. There were a lot of teams still running laps after the Davis girls were done with that one.
But, Davis didn't grab all of the headlines. Perhaps it just seemed that way.
Jamie Stokes and Sarah Feeny did some damage, Ogden style. The dynamic duo went 1-2 in the girls 1600 at 5:06.16 and 5:06:23. It's worth noting that those are almost identical times to what both ran at the outdoor state meet last May. They weren't done yet, though. Feeny and Stokes came back to go 1-3 in the 3200, with Feeny winning in 10:53.04.
Over on the boys' side, Park City's Ben Saarel turned a very nice 9:28.63 to win his 3200. For Saarel, that's a whopping 25-second drop off his time from the state meet last May.
Cole Lambourne of Riverton just missed winning the 60-200-400 trifecta. His 7.09 was just short of Davis's Fortin in the 60, but his 22.19 in the 200 was well ahead of the field in that event. His 48.80 in the 400 gives a lot of people a lot to think about for the spring season. For now, it was 1.7 seconds ahead of second.
Aimee Wheeler won the long jump by over a foot with a leap of 17-9. Perhaps it shouldn't be thought surprising to see great long jumping coming out of Springville? As a footnote to that performance, Wheeler actually advanced her best jump by 7.5 inches in finals, something of a rarity for an event where competitors often use up the best of their energy in earlier attempts.
Three girls cleared 5-4 in the high jump, including Mindy Stapel of Springville (more grist for the mill about Springville's natural advantage in jumps), Mitzi Munns of Box Elder, and Taylir Garrison of American Fork.
For the record, Springville did pretty nicely in the boys' shot put, too, with Grant Evans and Evan Benson going 1-2, both at over 48 feet.
Cedar's Aimee Bryson was quick around the indoor circuit, winning the 400 in 58.56.
Many of these athletes, and several more, have the upcoming weekend off before heading up the highway to Pocatello for a festive time at the Simplot Games on February 16 - 18. From the looks of things, Utah should be very nicely represented at Simplot this year.
Current Utah Indoor Boys Rankings
Current Utah Indoor Girls Rankings
Note: rankings do not include results from the Utah State University indoor meet.