High school cross country: Lone Peak’s girls, Skyridge’s boys claim Border Wars titles at Sugar House Park

Published: Sept 16, 2023, 6:14 p.m. MDT

Racers compete in the championship girls race at the Border Wars XC meet at Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023. Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

James has been covering high school sports in Utah for the Deseret News for three decades.

Some of the top runners from around Utah converged on Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday for the prestigious Border Wars cross country meet.

A total of 12 different high school races and two middle school races were held, with the feature boys and girls races taking place smack dab in the middle of the meet.

Lone Peak High School’s girls and Skyridge’s boys showed off their quality in their respective races to take home the team titles and bragging rights heading into the final month of the season.

Lone Peak’s girls easily ran away with the team title, as they placed four runners in the top eight to finish first with 33 team points.

Mountain View finished second with 107 points, followed by Westlake in third with 130 points.

Reigning 6A state champion Andie Aagard from Lone Peak took home the individual title, as the senior edge Olympus freshman Adria Favero by five seconds with a time of 17:29.18.

Addie Meldrum finished fourth for Lone Peak, with Maya Bybee and Boston Bybee finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.

In the boys race, depth was the key for Skyridge in edging Lone Peak for first, 119 to 124.

Skyridge didn’t have a runner in the top 20, with its top five runners finishing in 20th, 21st, 22nd, 24th and 32nd place, respectively, but that was good enough though to claim the team title.

Orem’s Austin Westfall took home the top individual honor, as he won with a time of 14:44.67. It was a dozen seconds faster than runner-up Kyle Steadman of Mountain View, as he finished with a time of 14:56.69.

Samuel Ghiz finished third in 15:01.48.