Week in Review: September 9 - 15

BYU Autumn Classic - High School

It's fitting this one comes first on the alphabetical list, because the lion's share of attention last weekend went to this meet. 

Round two of the Davis/American Fork battle went to the same school that took round one, American Fork. The Cavemen become more convincing (not that they weren't convincing before) with each new week. In a small field where team scoring gaps aren't easy to build, American Fork built a 36 - 63 gap on Davis. And, they beat the Darts at every scoring position. The foursome of McMillan, Green, McLelland, and Jacklin was fearsome, as usual, but if there's a point of vulnerability to nail down before the championship season for American Fork, it's at number five. Despite a second for Jordan Cross, Ogden was well back in third, but if you have to pick a place to be third, the BYU Autumn Classic in the same race as Davis and American Fork isn't a bad place.

Hats off to sophomore Conner Mantz for winning the individual title!

On the girls' side, this was all Davis. The Darts 33 points showed well against 56 for Ogden and 57 for American Fork. And, that one-point gap between Ogden and American Fork could be telling, though more so on the NXR-SW scene than the state scene as American Fork is not somebody Ogden needs to concern themselves over at the state meet. Ellie Child edges Sarah Feeny in what looks like a brilliant race for the individual title.

Times from the Saturday varsity races do not compare favorably to times from the Friday invitational races. I'm hoping someone reading this can fill in a few gaps in my understanding.

Herriman Invitational

The course has been described to me in a lot of adjectives that imply there's a love/hate kind of relationship going on here.

Alta's Kramer Morton (16:38) and Herriman's Lucy Biles (20:18) claim the individual titles. I've not seen team scores from this meet, so I'm guessing that wasn't part of the point of the contest. If, however, team scores had been kept and posted, we would be crowning the Herriman boys and girls, though both in fairly tight contests.

Royal Run XC Challenge

Emily Rich is having a very nice season, and an 18:07 to win by over 74 seconds does nothing to diminish the accumulating aura. And a 1-3-5-8-13 team score doesn't leave much room for other teams to wedge in. Bingham was dominant here.

In fact, Bingham was dominant on both sides of this meet. The boys notched seven of the top 11 places, paced by Andrew Brewer's 15:57. 

Wasatch managed second-place team finishes in both genders, but they were distant seconds. Then again, when state rolls around, Bingham is not one of Wasatch's concerns. Perhaps, though, it isn't much comfort to have Ogden as your main concern there.

Sagebrush Ramble

Meets in the Sagebrush are usually small, unless you can conscript teams of rabbits. But, if you simply pack everyone into the varsity races, the races don't feel small.

Small or no, Salem Hills and Cedar are two pretty good teams, and that made for a nicely competitive meet, with SH quietly taking the girls title and Cedar outpacing the boys field. Running like rabbits with very high max VO2 ratings were Salem Hills duo of Tate Muhlestein (17:21) and Sierra Malm (20:46). 

Salt Lake All City Cross Country Championship

Early in the week, they crowned a very local champion of Salt Lake City. For this year East owns the boys fiefdom and Rowland Hall the girls, but Rowland Hall is clearly a serious rival to the throne on the boys side of things.  I figure this can't be too fast of a course if Abigail Hurst wins in 21:01. East's Tommy Gutierrez narrowly takes boys honors from teammate Chris Rushing in 17:35.

Shiprock Cross Country Invitational

A few San Juan County schools made a run for the border to compete in Shiprock, New Mexico, this weekend. 1A Monticello managed a fourth in the boys team tally, but the larger New Mexico programs were largely an inhospitable crowd (at least so far as racing was concerned) for the smaller Utah schools in attendance. Monticello, however, continues to look like a very good 1A program