PROVO — Judge Memorial discovered Saturday that sometimes, the wait is worth it.
A year ago at the 3A state track and field championships, the Bulldogs felt they had a chance to win the school's first-ever boys state title but an early injury to a key runner relegated Judge to second. Saturday afternoon at BYU, the Bulldogs rebounded from that experience to easily win the 3A title.
It was also the afternoon for an amazing performance by a 4A athlete, a gutsy finish by an injured 5A star that helped his team win a title, a defended championship in 2A and a new champ in 1A.
Mountain View's Leif Arrenhius shattered all existing records in the shot put with a throw of 66-6 to win the 4A title. Last year, he won the event with a put of 58-9.
"His throw was amazing," coach Dave Houle said. "I didn't think anyone would beat his brother's (Nik, now in the BYU track program) throw, but Leif did."
Box Elder held off defending champ Mountain View for the 4A title, led by double victories on Saturday by Josh Crittenden in the 100 meters and 110 hurdles. Teammates Beau Herbert and Andy Davis took second and fourth in the 100m, and Crittenden and Herbert finished 2-3 in the 200m. It was Box Elder's third state title in the past four years. Other 4A winners were Logan's Jeff Alley in the 200m, Roy's Nate Carter in the 300 hurdles, Bonneville's Tommy Hurley in the 400, Provo's Jared Rohatinsky in the 3,200 and Lone Peak's Lorenzo DiRegolo in javelin. In the day's most exciting race, Jared Keller of Mountain View won in the 800. He edged Rohatinsky by just .01.
Judge Memorial has five seniors who, according to coach Dan Quinn, began building synergism on the team around a 1600 meter-relay squad that set a new state record at the BYU Invitational two weeks ago.
"These guys really polarized the school," Quinn said after watching both his boys and girls teams win state titles. "They talked up the program to the student body, and we had athletes from all sports come out for track."
The relay team's success, along with that of the Bulldog distance program, attracted throwers and other field athletes to help build the Bulldog arsenal. The results on Saturday were overwhelming, Judge scored 161.5 points to runner-up Hurricane's 54.5.
Winners for Judge Memorial included Micheal Webber in both sprints, Kyle Meakins in the 400 and 800 meters, and the distance duo of Patrick Smyth and Nik Hlady going 1-2 in the 3200, just as they did in Friday's 1600. Judge also won all three relays in a dominating effort.
With most of the point scorers graduating, Quinn remains optimistic that this year's success will help him in rebuilding the Bulldog program. Other 3A winners included Pineview's Tel Stewart in both hurdle races, Delta's Jordan Meacham in the javelin, Jimmy Scholzen of Hurricane in the long jump and Koeppen Owen of Park City in the shot.
Alta senior Dan Hutson turned in one of the day's guttiest performances in the 1600 relay, and that effort was the difference as the Hawks edged Davis for the 5A title. Entering the final race of the day, Alta and Davis were closely bunched in the title race. Hutson, who won the 400m earlier in the day despite an injury that had sidelined him for a month, ran anchor and helped the Hawks to a third-place finish. Davis took seventh, and the point difference gave Alta a 2.5 point margin of victory and its second state title. It won the 4A crown back in 1985.
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In 5A, winners included Taylorsville's Sok Nhim in the 100, 200 and long jump; Layton's Bradon Godfrey in the 110 hurdles; Fremont's Taylor Pebley in the 300 hurdles; Weber's Nick Fisher in the 800 and 3200; Davis' Ryan Spencer in the shot; and Bingham's Chris Shelton in the javelin.
Richfield repeated in 2A, and Duchesne won its first 1A title since 1992, defeating four-time champ Panguitch. Richfield's Trevor Dowdle paced his team with wins in the 400 and 800 meters, and teammate David Shaffer won the javelin. Juan Diego had fine performances from sprinters Marquis Wilson and Trevon Murphy, winners in the 100 and 200, respectively. Manti's Tim Dalene took first in the 110 hurdles, with North Summit's Adam Paskett winning at the 300 hurdles. Kanab's Jesse Fitting and Brandon Brown won the shot and long jump, while Jacob Howell of Manti took the 3200.
Duchesne was led by victories from Landon Despain and Nick Karren in the sprints, Karren in both hurdles races and Despain in the long jump. Duchesne also won the medley relay. Bryce Valley's Levi Lefevre set new state records in winning both the 800m and 3200m, and Panguitch's Joel Walter won the 400. Scott Barney of Panguitch was best among the shot putters, and Dugway's Dave Schofield won the javelin.