Utah HS Cross Country

In my own opinion, this is who I think the individuals/teams to watch out for are. On the boys side, some teams are: American Fork (as always). They only lost two of their top 15 guys. Davis is also usually a contender. They lose a lot of guys but they have a ton depth to make up for it. Hurricane was a strong team last year and thy return their whole varsity team. However, they do have two athletes who didnt compete in track. I'm not sure of they're injured, don't run track, moved, or what's going on. Without them, they struggle to find a fifth man. Skyridge only loses one guy and definitely has the depth to make up for that. They placed well at 5a state last year. Spanish Fork could also be in contention and Springville does not have bad returning team.

As for individuals, Grant Gardner, Caleb Armstrong, Wyatt Evans, Luke Grundevig, and Dalton Brems all look to be running well.

I haven't taken a look into who looks good but Anna Martin is one individual who looks to be running well.

^^^ Sorry for the poor grammar and vague explanations. Wore this in a hurry. The last paragraph was meant to say that I don't know who looks good on the girls side other than Anna Martin.

Yeah also I think American Fork and Davis will be the 2 best boys teams in Utah this year.

Davis may not have had a high finish at the state XC meet or NXR last season, but they had 6 guys under 10 minutes last spring in the 3200 who are returning.

Top 4 of American Fork last year were juniors who all ran under 16 at NXR. One of those four had no outdoor or indoor track results this year.

Input wrote:

Yeah also I think American Fork and Davis will be the 2 best boys teams in Utah this year.

Davis may not have had a high finish at the state XC meet or NXR last season, but they had 6 guys under 10 minutes last spring in the 3200 who are returning.

Top 4 of American Fork last year were juniors who all ran under 16 at NXR. One of those four had no outdoor or indoor track results this year.

One thing that could hurt Davis is the opening of the new Farmington High School, though I don't think they force the kids to transfer.

Girls: Lone Peak by a mile. 4A will be the best overall division with Desert Hills a very solid favorite

Just for fun, I did a quick mathematical ranking using 4 data points.

#1 3 mile from last year cross country season

#2 5K from last cross country season

#3 1600m from 2018 track

#4 3200m from 2018 track

I gave 10 points for top team down to 1 point for 10th best team.

Here are the results:

Girls

Lone Peak 38

Desert Hills 37

AF 27

Davis 22

Westlake 21

Pine View 20

Springville 14

Ogden 12

Skyline 8

Mountain View 8

Cedar 7

Olympus 5

Pleasant Grove 1

Boys

AF 39

Davis 32

Skyridge 24

Riverton 20

Herriman 16

Corner Canyon 14

Hurricane 12

Spanish Fork 11

Springville 8

Desert Hills 8

Bingham 7

Ogden 7

Timpview 6

Pineview 6

Timpanogos 5

Canyon View 2

Olympus 1

Westlake 1

Orem 1

Draw your own conclusions. Farmington HS opening will certainly take a toll on Davis.

Will be interesting if any of Davis’s returning top 7 transfer to Farmington

Jayordon wrote:

^^^ Sorry for the poor grammar and vague explanations. Wore this in a hurry. The last paragraph was meant to say that I don't know who looks good on the girls side other than Anna Martin.

Karli Branch looks to be running well on the girls side

Carson Clinger looks to be running well on the individuals side

Bruce Banner wrote:

One thing that could hurt Davis is the opening of the new Farmington High School, though I don't think they force the kids to transfer.

Farmington boys placed 8th (in front of Timpanogos) at the Highland invitational last Friday. None of their top 7 were seniors. So they are off to a good start.

Thomas Boyden (JR) from skyline has come out of nowhere. He beat all of AF and everyone in the state with the exception of Grant Gardner and Joey Nokes at grass relays. He also placed 2nd at Highland Invitational. He'll probably be #1 in the state next year for sure.