Larry Olson was sitting on the track. He had just completed a victory lap with his teammates, celebrating Northridge High School's 5A championship and could see no reason to stay on his feet any longer.
His exhaustion was understandable. Olson, a junior, had run seven grueling races in two days to help propel the second-year school in Layton to victory. He ran an 800 and two 400s on Friday in preliminary races and then came back with two 800s and two 400s in Saturday's finals. And while he didn't win any event, he helped account for 23 of the Knights' 97 points with a second place in the medley relay, thirds in the 800 and 400 and a sixth in the 1600 relay. That was just about the margin the Knights had over second place Weber, which had 68 points to third-place Bingham's 64.Woods Cross, after a slow start Friday, hit the afterburners Saturday to win its third straight 4A title at the UHSAA/First Security Bank State Track Championships at Brigham Young University. The Wildcats had 81 points to 49 for Mountain Crest and 46 for Spanish Fork.
Emery's 101 points was three better than Cedar City's total in 3A. Beaver took the 2A crown with 113 points to 93.5 for Juan and Dugway took 1A honors with 127.3 point to 94.5 for Panguitch.
But the big story was Northridge, which took a title in just its second year. Weber had the first-day lead and made a serious run at the Knights.
The Warriors' Nate Hill broke the state record in the 1600 meter run, clocking 4:13.22 to better Dave Spence's mark of 4:13.31 in 1989, to give Weber early momentum.
James Parker of Northridge responded with a toss of 180-feet 9-inches to win the discus by 25 feet. Parker, who is going to Utah State, won the shot put Friday. Teammate Brian Blood followed with a first-place in the 300 hurdles (38.33) to rally the Knights. Then came what was probably the key event, the 800, where Weber had hoped to get 10 points. Neither of its runners finished in the top eight while Northridge's Olson took third. That just about clinched the meet for the Knights. Brandon Dart added second-place finishes in the 100 and 200 for Northridge.
"It's really exciting," Northridge coach Rudy Jones said of his school's first-ever state title. It apparently was doubly special as Jones got two Gator-Ade-type baths.
For Woods Cross, Andrew Scivally provided the spark, winning the 400 (49.13), anchoring both the 400 and 1600 meter relay teams to victory and placing fourth in the 200. Jack Starks gave the Wildcats another first in the 800 (1:58.18) and the Wildcat medley relay team of Kelly Lifferth, Ryan Borrowman, Solomon Gustafson and Brad Birks, also took first.
Impressive performances were numerous and included the following:
- Cottonwood's Cal Beck winning both the 5A 100 and 200 in 10.76 and 21.50.
- Bingham's Lee Lorenz taking the 5A 400 (49.16) and 800 (1:54.44) and helping the 1600 relay team of himself, Rulon Doman, Mike Armstrong and Clint Edmonds to a first-place 3:19.40 clocking.
- Orem's Eric Crow winning the 5A high jump at 6-10 and then attempting a state record 7-01/4.
- East's Slade Combes winning the 4A 110 (14.78) and 300 (38.39) hurdles.
- Tooele's Aaron Salahuddin winning the 4A 100 (10.80), placing second in the 200 and winning the long jump (21-7).
- Cedar City's Tyler Truman winning the 3A 400 (49.65) and 300 hurdles (38.65) and placing second in the 800 (2:00.17).
- Wasatch's Scott Henderson taking the 3A 800 (1:56.34) and anchoring the team of Brett Lloyd, Trevor Jolley and Aaron Mitchell to first in the 1600 relay (3:26.05).