| Dino runners Melanie Madsen and David Goodrich gave the home fans a reason to cheer at Wednesday night’s invitational run at Carbon High. Madsen finished first in the girls division and Goodrich took fourth for the boys. Both runners will be preparing this week for the region championships, which begin on Monday. | |
Runners from locations all around the state descended upon Carbon High Wednesday night for a cross country meet in the hills behind the school.
The Dino hosts were unkind to their visiting competitors, though. Carbon took top spots in both the boys and girls races, including a first place finish by speedster Melanie Madsen in the girls division.
In the girls race, Madsen lead from the starting line and never relinquished her lead.
As she neared the finish line on the track, the Carbon football team paused practice to cheer her to the win.
Her time of 19:53 was several seconds faster than her nearest competitor.
Madsen, a senior, said that preforming in front of a home crowd was a little intimidating.
“It made me nervous because there were so many people,” she commented.
Madsen comes from a long line of runners. Four of her five siblings were runners, although she said she is more into running than the rest of her family.
Upon her graduation this spring, Madsen said she intends to compete on the collegiate level.
Among her prospects is BYU, Hawaii. However, Madsen said she is still willing to look at other schools before committing.
Madsen was not the only athlete to light up the trail for Carbon. Three other Dino girls runners had top ten finishes.
Elizabeth Brooks crossed the line in seventh place and teammates Ashley Anderson and Brittany Horrocks finished ninth and 10th, respectively.
Brittney Banning took 20th place amongst the field of 36 runners. Janelle Bates came in 21st, Mikaleen Loveless took 27th, Audry Oliver finished 31st and Jana Burrows followed in 32nd place.
Sabrina Pons crossed the line in 36th place, fighting the tough course to the very end.
The boys race immediately followed the girls, but was not so clearly dominated.
Carbon’s David Goodrich, a junior, and three other runners shifted positions in the front of the group for a major portion of the race.
At the turn onto 1300 East, Goodrich had taken the lead from a Richfield competitor.
The shifts continued on the big hills that composed much of the track. When the top runners re-entered the stadium for one final lap around the track, Goodrich was battling to overtake third place.
In a near finish, Goodrich was unable to pass his competitor and finished in fourth place with a time of 17:29, two seconds out of third.
David’s brother Paul Goodrich finished 10th for the team with a time of 18:16.
Bo Christensen came in 26th, Tyler Munns took 29th, Kellen Spillman nabbed 49th, John Truckenbolt finished 62nd and Joe Harber completed the race in 64th.
David Goodrich said that he too felt the strain of the home crowd.
“I kind of felt pressured,” he admitted. “But, it’s a lot of fun and I beat my personal record.”
Carbon’s next run will be at the region championships, which take place all next week.