Photos courtesy of Telisse Martak
Nearly 20 schools got together in North Sanpete on Wednesday for a three-mile cross country meet. Porter Whitworth from Grantsville set the pace with a 15:40.7 time. Emery’s Bryar Meccariello and Jess Christiansen placed sixth and eighth with times of 16:29.2 and 16:40.2, respectively.
Carbon’s top three runners finished within three seconds of each other. James Bryner, Chad Page and Ryan Page ended in 11th, 12th and 13th with times of 16:50, 16:50.7 and 16:52.6. Bryner had a huge jump from mile one to mile two. He was in 21st after the first mile and caught all the way up to 11th by the mile two mark.
Kobe Cruz was the fourth Dino to cross the line. He did so with a time of 17:34.5 for 29th place. Shane Scaugard was under the weather but still put out a gutty performance to finish in 37th at 17:43.9. This allowed the Dinos’ spread to be under a minute once again.
Head coaches from both Carbon and Emery commented on the difficulty of the course. “The course is very challenging,” said Carbon coach Telisse Martak. “The first mile and a half is a steady incline with some little rolling ups and then downs.” Emery’s Kristy Guymon was proud of her group. “It was a hard course, but everyone ran really well.”
To round off the top five Spartans, Beau Cook ended in 35th (17:43.2), Zach Wolford in 69th (18:36.9) and Merritt Mecarrielo in 75th (18:51.3). At the end of the day, Carbon was the top 3A team and just 10 points behind 5A Payson, which finished first. Emery ended in seventh overall and fourth in 3A.
In the girls’ competition, freshman Lady Dino Ambree Jones finished in 18th with a time of 21:40.8. Teammates Lindsey Fausett and Gracie Tatton ended in 74th and 89th with times of 24:27.8 and 26.23.5, respectively.
Adalet Lester led the Lady Spartans with a time of 23:29.7 for 48th place followed by Ryleigh Mecarrielo (56th, 23:28.8), Kallee Cook (58th, 23:42.3), Ryleigh Laws (59th, 23:43.9) and Bethany Justice (69th, 24:12.3).
The top girl was Elizabeth Zwahlen from North Summit. She completed the course at 18:37.6, over 50 seconds faster than the next challenger. Emery took 12th place and Carbon did not place due to their lack of runners in the heat. (Several Lady Dinos were unable to make the trip due to prior obligations.)
“All in all, we ran well and put three in the top 15 (in the boys’ race). Ambree Jones ran a great, tough race,” Martak said. “We are going work on staying healthy and going into region and then state.”
Guymon is happy with the direction of her team. “All our hard work is starting to pay off. As a team, both the boys and girls are starting to group up better.”
These two teams will not race again until the regional competition, which will take place at Carbon on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
