Competing in the most prestigious prep track and field meet in the country, Carter Cutting, a junior from Corner Canyon High School, won the 800-meter run with a thrilling finish, edging the runner-up by one-hundredth of a second.
Cutting, who moved to Utah from Oregon last year, ran aggressively but patiently, stalking the leaders for most of the race. They passed 400 meters in 54 seconds. When the trio reached the homestretch, Cutting moved from third to first and narrowly held off Jai Dawson of Dana Hills at the finish line. Cutting’s time was 1:51.55, Dawson’s 1:51.56.
Carter, who also has run a 4:11.62 for the 1,600 this spring, was the highlight of the meet for the Utah contingent.
Established in 1968, the Arcadia Invitational has featured 32 national records and 203 future Olympians. This year’s meet attracted athletes from 622 schools and 29 states. As usual, a large group of Utah athletes qualified to compete in the meet.
The competition is broken into various levels, with the top performers featured in the “invitational” races held under the lights Saturday night. Led by Carter, several Utahns were featured in those races.
Orem’s Tayson Echohawk finishes first in the varsity boys race of the 2021 BYU Autumn Classic at Timpanogos Golf Club in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. Echohawk was one of many Utah ties to run at the Arcadia Invitational.
Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
Orem High’s Tayson Echohawk placed fourth in the invitational mile with a time of 4:09.94, followed by Farmington’s Ethan Peterson in fifth place (4:10.03), Lone Peak’s Jaron Hartshorn in sixth (4:10.83) and American Fork’s Nathan Jaster in ninth (4:23.73). South Dakota’s Simeon Bimbaum won the race in 4:07.88.
Taylor Rohatinsky, a BYU-bound senior from Lone Peak High, finished fifth in a fast 1,600-meter run, with a time of 4:44.14. The race was won by superstar Sadie Englehardt, a 15-year-old freshman from Ventura, California, who announced before the meet that she would pursue the national prep record of 4:33.87 established by Katelyn Tuohy in 2018. After breaking away from the pack on the second lap, Englehardt narrowly missed the record, but her time of 4:35.16 established a meet record and a world age-group record.
Jane Hedengren, a Timpview High freshman, placed eighth in another fast distance race — the 3,200-meter run — with a time of 10:17.67. The race was won by Dalia Frias of Mira Costa with a time of 9:55.40.
Fremont’s Amare Harlan, who tied the all-class state 100-meter dash record of 11.68 this spring, was fifth in the invitational 100 in 11.92 and fifth in the 200 in 24.44., with Farmington’s Marian Barber seventh in the latter race in 24.95.
Alta High School’s Elyse Jessen runs the girls 800 meter race during the Pine View Invitational Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Washington, Utah. Jessen finished fifth in the same race over the weekend in the prestigious Arcadia Invitational in California with a time of 2:11.85.
Chuck Wing, Deseret News
Elyse Jessen, a junior at Alta, placed fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:11.85; the defending 5A state 400-meter champion was attempting only the second 800-meter race of her life.
American Fork, an established distance-running power, won the rarely contested 4X1,600-meter run. The team of Ben Jaster, Chase Evans, Jayden Fitzgerrald and Nathan Jaster finished with a time of 17:21.16, the fastest in the nation this year.