Roughly half way between Vernal and Provo lies the small town of Duchesne. But, don't be deceived, that small town just may prove to be the capital of small school track and field this spring in Utah.
Last year, Duschesne outpointed Monticello and Rich for the 1A boys state title in track and field. But it so happens that Monticello and Rich lost some key personnel to graduation, while Duchesne's boys' track team escaped nearly unscathed from last year's commencement exercises. With Braiden Despain and Max Lewis returning, the throws are looking very good for the Eagles. Despain doubles as the classification's top returning high jumper from the state meet. Jordan Allred, Shiaba Allen, and Macoy Young have Duchesne nicely positioned in every running event up to 1600 meters.
If you're okay with starting the season with a target on your back, it looks like a good spring to be Duchesne.
But Monticello, a pleasant little community at the base of the Blue Mountains in SE Utah, won't be without hope. Jake Duncan is arguably the classification's best hurdler, and the Buckaroos have other guys who can score as well. Track has been going very nicely in Monticello for a few years running, and it would be premature to dismiss any title hopes for this team.
Also figuring to have highly competitive teams are, in no particular order, Layton Christian, Altamont, Panguitch, and, of course, Rich.
To provide you a better visual on how the 1A boys teams in the state stack up, we took the meet results from last spring (including especially the state meet results) we could easily get our hands on, turned them into rankings, and scored a virtual meet based off of last year's results. The virtual meet did not include relays as it's very difficult to project relay composition from year to year. What that virtual meet scoring shows is that Duchesne is a very strong entry relative to the next tier of teams.
Of course, a lot can change from one year to the next. Freshmen become sophomores, and sophomores become juniors. Those added years of maturity can mean a lot in terms of potential to score points at the state meet. And, admittedly, we're missing some graduation year information for a large number of athletes who could potentially impact team scoring for this spring. Without graduation year information, athletes were left off of the analysis below.
For a closer look at the rankings from last year, you are invited to click on the Stats menu item on the main pale blue navigation bar above. Then click on Outdoor T & F Rankings for high school boys. Select 2011 for your year, and click Yes on Returners?. Under League, select UHSAA 1A, and that will bring you to a leader board for the 1A classification. From there, pick your event or events of interest.
As we build results from the 2012 track and field season, you'll be able to do similar analyses from this spring's results. Clicking on any athlete's name below will bring you to their personal page on the Utah MileSplit site. From there, you can see all recorded marks in the system for that athlete. We hope to add many, many more marks this spring now that MileSplit Utah has become an active site once again in the MileSplit system.
2011 UT HS M Outdoor Track Team Scores (Returners Only)
Calculated as of February 19, 2012
These rankings were calculated by scoring the rankings as a meet. We took the individual rankings and scored them as a normal meet: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.
Athletes whose graduation years are unknown were left out of the list.
| 1. | Duchesne | 107 |
| Braiden Despain (D 8 + HJ 10 + S 8 = 26) | ||
| Jordan Allred (1600m 4 + 800m 10 = 14) | ||
| Macoy Young (100m 6 + 200m 8 + 400m 10 + LJ 5 = 29) | ||
| Max Lewis (D 10 + S 10 = 20) | ||
| Shiaba Allen (100m 5 + 110H 8 + 200m 3 = 16) | ||
| Trent Roberts (J 2 = 2) | ||
| 2. | Monticello | 50 |
| Austin Wilcox (S 4 = 4) | ||
| Collin Hatch (3200m 3 = 3) | ||
| Ford Welch (J 1 = 1) | ||
| Gunnar Hollinsworth (D 2 + HJ 4 + S 1 = 7) | ||
| Jake Duncan (110H 10 + 300H 8 + J 5 = 23) | ||
| Justin Wright (1600m 2 + 3200m 6 = 8) | ||
| Rylen Goodwin (300H 4 = 4) | ||
| 3. | Layton Christian | 47 |
| Brandon Faison (100m 4 + 200m 5 + LJ 6 = 15) | ||
| Josh Hawes (S 6 = 6) | ||
| Nick Edwards (100m 10 + 200m 10 + LJ 3 = 23) | ||
| Quincy Mason (400m 3 = 3) | ||
| 4. | Altamont | 43 |
| Austin Gallyer (100m 8 + 200m 4 + LJ 8 = 20) | ||
| Dylan Lindsay (1600m 5 + 3200m 10 = 15) | ||
| Kyle Foy (100m 3 + 400m 5 = 8) | ||
| 5. | Rich | 40 |
| Austin Groll (1600m 10 + 400m 8 = 18) | ||
| Brady Meek (J 4 = 4) | ||
| Bramdon Linkogle (800m 4 = 4) | ||
| Dakota Clark (110H 2 = 2) | ||
| Dallin Leifson (3200m 4 = 4) | ||
| Vance Weston (1600m 8 = 8) | ||
| 6. | Panguitch | 39 |
| Brandon Birch (800m 2 = 2) | ||
| Brendon Lee (HJ 7 = 7) | ||
| Dallin Bennett (HJ 5 = 5) | ||
| Keldon Norris (110H 6 + 300H 6 = 12) | ||
| Tyce Barney (D 6 + HJ 7 = 13) | ||
| 7. | Bryce Valley | 38 |
| Adam Platt (1600m 3 + 3200m 5 = 8) | ||
| Braxton Syrett (800m 8 + J 3 = 11) | ||
| Cajun Syrett (110H 5 + 1600m 1 + 300H 5 = 11) | ||
| Dawson Johnson (300H 2 = 2) | ||
| Jesse Jessen (D 3 = 3) | ||
| Logan Lefevre (S 2 = 2) | ||
| Taryn Syrett (3200m 1 = 1) | ||
| 8. | Tabiona | 20 |
| Myles Potter (300H 10 + LJ 10 = 20) | ||
| 8. | Saint Joseph | 20 |
| Conner Letendre (800m 1 = 1) | ||
| Sam Weil (1600m 6 + 3200m 8 + 800m 5 = 19) | ||
| 10. | Wayne | 18.5 |
| Bryan Batty (100m 1.5 = 1.5) | ||
| Randy Ellett (J 6 = 6) | ||
| Trenton Taylor (200m 6 = 6) | ||
| Zack Taylor (S 5 = 5) | ||
| 11. | Milford | 17.5 |
| Daniel Hardy (100m 1.5 + 400m 6 = 7.5) | ||
| Mauricio Hernandez (J 10 = 10) | ||
| 12. | Whitehorse | 14 |
| Keevin Bellison (LJ 2 = 2) | ||
| Marty Sanchez (D 5 = 5) | ||
| Trista Mitchell (D 4 + S 3 = 7) | ||
| 13. | Valley | 12 |
| Colby Spencer (800m 6 = 6) | ||
| Morgan Hoyt (200m 2 + LJ 4 = 6) | ||
| 14. | Green River | 11 |
| Josh Sanders (800m 3 = 3) | ||
| Justin Johnson (J 8 = 8) | ||
| 15. | Dugway | 7 |
| Adam Mason (300H 3 = 3) | ||
| Chris Kimler (110H 3 + 300H 1 = 4) | ||
| 16. | Piute | 5 |
| Clay Fullmer (400m 1 = 1) | ||
| Jt Bagley (110H 4 = 4) | ||
| 16. | Manila | 5 |
| Colten Ferrin (LJ 1 = 1) | ||
| Matthew Northcott (3200m 2 = 2) | ||
| Steele Handy (400m 2 = 2) | ||
| 16. | Tintic | 5 |
| Shelton Denison (200m 1 + 400m 4 = 5) |