At the start of the meet, our small but mighty field events group led off the competition. In the Girls Long Jump our sole Oly competitor, Fern jumped to 14-00.75ft, just missing out on finals. In the Girls Javelin, Edna and Bethany competed in their first region meets with Edna finishing 11th and throwing a PR of 68-08ft. Bethany threw a Pr of 40-10ft.
In the mean time, our 4 boys high jumpers had started competition, Skylar and Isaac just missed out on state Qualifying but did score team points with 5-10 and 5-06, respectively. Hunter and Landon both picked up HJ only this year, both hit equal to their pr's with 5-04 and 5-02.
The field events continued with boys discus, in which all Oly teammembers made their first Region trip in this event. Isaac G, switching up from the HJ came to a mark of 96-10, Isaac W threw 80-06, Jayden pr'ed by 6 feet! with 74-01, and Logan rounded up with 69-03.
In the Girls shot put, Edna and Bethany, both came close to pr's with 19-11.50 and 19-01.75.
At this point is was time for the track events to start. The girls 4x800 lead the way with a strong run from Eleanor, Kate, Miya and Sofia, who put it together to finish 3rd and Qualify for State (!). For all of them it will be their first trip to the big show. The boys team followed, and auto qualifier for our A team gave way to the opportunity for some younger kids to to get some experience. Max, Joel, Cole and JoJo made of the team and in an exciting race they managed to hang on for 6th place and a time of 8:56.45.
Then it was time for our sprinters to take the track with heats of the 100's and hurdles. Whitney managed to snag a spot in finals of the 100mH and Bridget ran a strong race with a time of 21.48.
In the boys 110mH, Paul held himself well with a time of 19.93.
5 strong in the Girls 100, we managed to take 2 finals spots with Fern and Brynn advancing. Syrelle just missed finals with a time of 13.47, Charity ran 14.18 and Naomi right behind with 14.39.
The wind kept paying tricks and with a 3.2 m/s headwind Evan hang on for 13th with 11.94, Skylar followed in the same heat with 12.31. James ran 12.52 and Tennyson 12.60.
Then both 4x200 relays put it out there in the hopes of Qualifying for state. The girls made it extra put it all on the line after a messy hand-off at the BYU invitational. But this time they managed to do it well, and Brynn, Whitney, Fern and Millie brought the baton around to finish 3rd with a time of 1:46.76.
The boys however had to really make a run for it in a competitive field. Withland, Skylar, Evan P and Evan C came together to finish 3rd in a time of 1:33.84 to also Qualify for State!
Time for the 1600 meters, in heat one it was Malory, as a senior, rounding our her career with a massive pr to run 6:25.52. In the second heat we had Miya and Eleanor running tough races to finish 13th and 14th with 5:56.17 and 6:04.19.
The boys 1600m, 4 spots on the line for state and a bunch of potential athletes in contention, the Olympus boys knew they had to put it all out there. Vaughn did not want to leave anything to chance and in a gutsy move he took the lead in lap two gapping the field by almost 50 meters. The boys behind waited and waited and finally the group kicked in the last lap to real Vaughn back in. With Will up front a six boys came screaming towards the finish. With a massive kick in the last 50m Max passed enough people to make it into fourth place. Qualifying both Will and Max for state, Vaughn unfortunately just missing out.
In the 400 we saw solid perfomances from Millie and Evan, both capturing spots in the finals. Jr Jenna and Fr Johanna finished 14th and 15th with times of 1:06.52 and 1:07.46. Caroline ran her first ever 400m with 1:13.20. Ashley unfortunately false started. On the boys side Scotti came back from the frisbee field to post a tiny pr with 56.53, Joel ran 57.81. Whitland rounded out the Oly competitiors with 1:02.09.
Back at the 300mH Whitney again claimed a place in the finals, posting the second time and a pr. Bridget ran a slight pr with a time of 1:02.40.
On the boys side, Paul represented the green and white with a time of 46.25.
Last but not least for Wednesday were the 200's. On the girls side Millie won her heat and qualified for finals with 27.65, right behind her was Brynn with 27.78 just missing out of finals but running the same time as her sister Whitney. Syrelle ran 28.55 a slight PR. Fern finished with 29.01. On the boys side we saw a huge surprise from Evan P, taking a spot in the finals. Whitland finished with 25.67, Tennyson and James were right behind with 26.57 and 26.60. Which rounded out the competition for Wednesday.
Thursday
A full day of finals awaited Oly Track in Park City on Thursday. With several finalists it posed to become an exciting day.
The Field events again started off the day, with boys javelin first. Which saw Ethan take 16th with 96-03, Hunter with 93-02, Tennyson with 80-07, Logan with 79-05 and Isaac with 78-08. In the long jump the guys stayed just short of their pr's With Unter leading the way with 17-11.25, Skylar with 17-09.50 and Paul with 16-02.50 and Rex with 14-09.75. All these guys just picked up long jump and javelin so that should get exciting in the next years!
At the girls HighJump Ashley scored points for the Oly team, equalling her pr with 4-07. Elizabeth, in her first year had some great practice jumps but resulted with NM in competition.
On the throwing field Edna was the sole competitor in the discus and threw a huge 10ft pr to just miss out on point with 74-09. In the boys shot put Logan finally reached his goal to break 30 with 30-05, Isaac followed suite with 28-00, and Jayden threw 24-09.
On the track, while we thought it couldn't get more nerve wrecking the the boys 1600m, the distance crew did one better in the 3200m. With Vaughn on the PA system, having the best comments we have yet seen at any competition. And a great tactics to get to be on the PA (you'll have to ask him). The morning heat, slated to divide the State spots. We saw Carly on the Girls side initially taking the 5th spot. On the boys side Max tested his legs for state, but dropped out in the last lap. Kyle ran a smart and tough race, gaining on his competitors in the middle laps, he got passed in the last meters to finish 5th, initially just missing out on qualifying. However, the official had seen some violations and disqualified an athlete ahead of both Carly and Kyle, which put them into state championships positions. A rollercoaster followed, with someone disputing the officials ruling, this getting passed. Kicking Kyle and Carly out of State, after which another appeal denied the earlier dispute putting Kyle and Carly back into the State competition. Both ran their guts out, so well deserved. Brenen also ran a tough race scoring points for the Oly team finishing 7th with 10:41.64.
Later in the day in the girls 3200 second heat, Liza, Sydney, Malory and Evelyn all posted solid times, running a high altitude with finishing times of 14:00.82 (Liza), 14:18.26 (Sydney), 14:21.25 (Malory) and 14:41.01 (Evelyn). In the Guys race Guy got close to his pr with 11:26.98.
After the dust settled, Whitney flew over the hurdles to post 8th in the finals with a time of 17.39. Brynn and Fern took their speed to 6th and 8th with times of 13.37 and 13.53.
The girls 4x100 allowed for some youngsters to get valuable experience with the sisters Charity and Noamie handing off to Ashley and Syrelle. With almost flawless handoffs they ran into 6th place with 52.92. On the boys side James, Scotti, Whitland and Evan also took 6th with 47.65.
In the 400 meters, Millie once again showed she is a contester for the State championships, finishing 2nd and scoring big points with 58.63 a solid seasonal best. On the boys side Evan showed everyone how it is done to win the finals by nearly a second, finishing with 50.87.
In the 300mHurdles the titans were represented by first year hurdler Whitney. She once again posted a personal best of 47.82, taking 3rd and grabbing that spot to qualify for state.
The girls 800m followed quickly after, with several contenders for those state spots. Freshmen Sofia stood her ground, pr'ed and took 3rd to qualify for state with 2:25.02. Eleanor and Kate ran brave races, with 2:33. 67 (pr) and 2:38.91. In the second heat we saw Emma speed to 3:02.07 also a pr.
In the boys 800, Cole and Joel lead off in the first heat. Cole ran a strong race and pr'ed with 2:14.29, Joel followed with 2:19.56. In the second heat, Evan C raced with all he got to qualify for state, unfortunately a bloody nose halfway hit him hard and he fell back from the lead to finish with 2:14.20. Dillon raced strongly and came with the pass to lead the titans in the 800 to 6th place with a time of 2:05.68.
The girls 200m finals, saw a strong field with a lot of state contenders. Millie held herself well taking 6th with a time of 27.45.
The boys 200 finals brought another suprise. Evan P, just fresh from yesterday's surprise of making it to the finals brought the next level speed. He put up on a show finishing 0.08 sec ahead of number 5 which, in 4th place with 23.31, has him going to his first State Championships.
Then time for the 4x400, arguably the most exciting event of these championships. The girls, Eleanor, Jenna, Brynn and millie, started strong, battling back and forth around 3rd-4th place for the first two legs. It was Brynn, in her first 4x400 in a long while who made the definitive pass. Once Millie got the baton she had to hold off a strong runner from Brighton while trying to catch back up with Highland. She ran strong to hold on to the third place. Getting them to State!
On the boys side the team was help up by mostly distance specialist. They got to show their footspeed with a quick 4x400. The team of Evan, Vaughn, Jojo and Will took off in the lead and throughout the race only extended that lead to win the event by 5 seconds, just off of the auto Q for state. Their region finish will allow them to run in state.
On the overall score we finish 4th on the boys side and 6th on the girls. Combined 6th place. I think we succeeded in our goals, bringing more kids to state. While we certainly can finish higher in region if we ran/jumped/threw our full squad. By giving some people a lighter load we hope they'll have all the opportunity to do well at state. We are very proud of how the athletes competed, ran strong and where good support to their teammates. Well done!
Shout out to our assistant coaches, Tara, Betsy, George! They have worked so hard all season, I am very happy to have had your support and you brought these kids to the place where they were ready to compete!
Lastly, we finished the meet with the best bus ride home. Oly alumn, Jon, was very happy to bring us home. And while waiting for the 4x4 team to finish their cooldown, he lead the whole bus in signing songs. It was much fun. Thank you Jon.
Off to State we go!