After an eventful week which included the Region 12 championships, the Carbon High Cross Country team now has their focus on the 3A State Meet in Salt Lake City on Wednesday.
CHS Head Coach Telisse Allen said the girl’s team made a final push at the Region 12 meet and were able to come away with a tie for first place with Payson.
The team went into the meet without one of their key runners Sarah Ohlwiler who was out due to sickness. Allen was able to find a replacement in Sadie Crompton, who recently finished her season with the CHS girl’s soccer team. Emily Broadbear took fifth overall and Zarah Rossi finished eighth. Following them were Crompton (11th overall), Madi Black (14th) and Nikki Kulow (18th).
Allen said Kulow’s performance, which was her best run by more than two minutes compared to the previous meet at North Sanpete, helped push the team, along with the other strong finishes of teammates, over the top and into first place.
“The girls all ran so well at region,” said Allen. “Going into the championship, I was just hoping that they would be able to make it to state. But they worked hard, overcame losing a teammate to sickness and finished really strong.”
For the boy’s team, Allen said it was the opposite of the girl’s performance. Going in, Allen said the boy were in good position to qualify as a team. Needing just to finish in fourth place or better to clinch a spot at state, the boy’s team struggled.
In the end, the boy’s finished in fifth place at the region meet. Allen said she and the boy’s team had a hard time trying to pinpoint what the cause was.
“They were prepared and knew the course well from the previous meet there in early September,” she explained. “It’s mind boggling. But this kind of thing can happen to anyone.”
While they boys will not advance as a team, three members of the squad will compete at the State Meet. Drew Jones, Trey Richardson and Paul Bryner will run for the team at state.
“Drew and Trey ran at state last year, so they’ll work with Paul and focus on running together as a team,” said Allen, noting the boys will have no team score, just individual scores.
With the girl’s team, Allen said Broadbear and Rossi both have aspirations of finishing within the top 30. But overall, Allen said she is hopeful that the team will put up a strong performance that can carry over into next year’s squad.
“I just want the team to go and do the best they can,” she said noting she was pleased with the performance of the teams through the season. “Getting that experience of competing at state has the ability to help out a young team like us to really improve.”
See the Tuesday, October 28 edition of the Sun Advocate for results of how the Carbon High Cross Country did at the 3A State Meet.
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