I don't believe we picked up results from every meet in the state this past week, but we did get a good selection.
And, even without all of the results, one thing is clear: a lot of teams scaled back the competition this week. Whereas Labor Day weekend is opening weekend for most schools in neighboring states, the season is already well under way in Utah and gives a lot a schools an opportunity for a break week if they choose to use it that way. Still, there was plenty of competition to be had.
Before discussing the week's action, however, I'd like to reissue an invitation to the shutterbugs among you to send along nice meet action photos. This article, and future articles as well, would be just a little more attractive with a shot of Utah high school cross country action from the past week to adorn the cover.
Utah County Cross Country Invitational
While the length of the course was open to investigation, the quality of the competition was not. With Summer Harper in the 17s, and Ben Saarel and Jake Heslington under 15, nobody should have left disappointed that Utah's top talent didn't lay it out on the course.
We seen Lucy Biles of Herriman run a solid race before, but Saturday's 18:11 seems to take things to a new level. Top notch talent graduates, and more top-notch talent moves through the pipeline to replace those who are now competing at the collegiate level. In all, 12 girls dipped under 19-flat at this event and, even if it was a hair short of 5K, that's an impressive total--all the more so for an early season meet. Twenty-three boys under 16-flat may be even more impressive, though.
The American Fork JV boys were out in force in the FR/SO race at this one. And, in case you were wondering, the light at the end of the cave at American Fork is perpetual.
A couple of high profile names were MIA at this meet but, for now, we'll chalk that up to Labor Day weekend family travel and not get overly suspicious about injuries yet.
Girls Highlights
- Three Mile Run - Summer Harper (Orem) 17:44.18 SB; Lucy Biles (Herriman High) 18:11.78 SB;
Boys Highlights
- Three Mile Run - Ben Saarel (Park City) 14:58.91 SB; Jake Heslington (Timpanogos) 14:59.34 SB; Jaydn Asay (Mountain View) 15:13.15 SB; Chuk Mitchell (Herriman High) 15:18.41 SB; Paxton Patey (Maple Mountain High School) 15:19.15 SB;
Utah Pre Region 4 Meet
American Fork hosted this one, but it would appear they may have laid off the gas a little for this one. Either that or I don't understand the challenges of the course very well (which is entirely possible). Regardless of what happened, though AF took five of the top six places. Congratulations to Andrew Brewer of Bingham for crashing the party!
If you need to understand why American Fork's girls are a threat this fall, check out the results of this meet. Places three through nine all go to American Fork, and all fall within a span of 20 seconds. If you're going to beat American Fork this fall, you'd best have a very solid 4 and 5, because it would be real easy to end up in back of AF's #7 if you don't.
Emily Rich and Jackie Heaps impressed and 1 and 2.
Girls Highlights
- 5000 Meter Run - Emily Rich (Bingham) 19:25.00 SB;
Boys Highlights
- 5000 Meter Run - Connor Mcmillan (American Fork) 16:07.00 SB; Andrew Brewer (Bingham) 16:16.00 SB; Brayden McLelland (American Fork) 16:29.00 SB;
Utah Pre Region 7 Meet
Herriman ran pretty well at Utah County on Saturday, but they may have been even more impressive at their Pre Region meet earlier in the week. Here's hoping the Herriman harriers can keep their legs under them until October. It's tough to lose a meet when you nail down eight of the top 10 places. The bummer about that is that at least one of those eight won't get to run at state. Chuk Mitchell and Rory Linkletter are running at the front of a very good team right now.
Apparently, the Skyline girls read from the same strategy manual as the Herriman boys. For Skyline, it was 11 of the top 14 places. Herriman did get the top two places out of Lucy Biles and Kami Hartley, but had a big gap between #2 and #3. That gap, of course, spanned the aforementioned top 11 from Skyline.
Utah State Aggie Invitational
As Saturday invitationals go, this one was smallish, but did afford a good look at some top northern Utah individual and team talent.
Jerrell Mock? All you can do is applaud this one. 15:24 sounds pretty good for 5K until you realize it was also 1:12 ahead of second. I don't care what meet you're running in, that is domination.
Dallin Leatham of Viewmont made an early case for freshman of the year with his 16:56 and fourth place in this one.
Sky View's Megan Sidwell wins the girls race in 20:07. Uintah, however, came all the way in from Vernal and slipped away with the team title. There must be some good training routes in Dinosaur National Monument.