High school cross-country: Mountain View sweeps boys, girls 4A state titles

There was a moment just before the final straight away in Tuesday’s 4A cross country state meet that West Field’s Hailey Atwater kind of resigned herself to a runner up-finish.
She had recently passed Park City’s Tatum Flach and Orem’s Madelyn Embley around the Sugar House Park duck pond, but catching Green Canyon’s Charlotte Felt — a region competitor who she’d never beat — seemed daunting.
“I’m not gonna lie, I was like, well, second place isn’t too bad,” said the West Field sophomore. “But then I just thought don’t have any regrets.I didn’t want to regret anything from the last race of the year, so then I kind of sprinted and hope she didn’t catch up to me.”
It worked out perfectly as Atwater held on for the win with a time 18:07.81, while first-year cross country runner Felt finished second in 18:10.04.
Her late-race mentality shift was similar to some of her pre-race mentality shift about the cold and rainy weather.
“I was pretty negative beforehand. During school I was kind of dreading it, but then I realized everyone has to deal with it, so you may as well deal with in a positive way,” she Atwater.
Atwater becomes the first individual state champ in school history for first-year school West Field. She competed at the 6A state meet at Fremont as a freshman last year.
Atwater’s triumph was the lone blemish on an otherwise dominant day for Mountain View’s cross country team.
Not only did the Bruin boys and girls repeat as state champions, but Mountain View’s Kyle Steadman won the boys individual state title as well.
Mountain View’s boys dominated, placing its top five runners in the top 12 as it won comfortably with a team score of 32. Orem finished second with an 88, while Timpanogos was third with 99.
“We really came together as a team, focused on the process more than the finish line. Get away from outcomes, get away from winning, and focusing on getting in and grinding real hard,” said Mountain View coach Mike Strauss.
Nobody was out there grinding harder than Steadman. The senior was with a small pack of lead runners at the first mile mark, but by the second mile he was head by nearly 20 seconds.
When it was all said and done, he finished first with a time of 15:06.73, over 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack. Pine View senior Bridger Jaggi crossed in second with a 15:39.34, with Orem junior Peter Mecham in third with a 15:44.42.
“He sleeps and drinks running, it’s his entire life. He is so tenacious and committed to what he does and so dedicated to it that push comes to shove he’s going to do all he can to be as successful as he can,” said Strauss.
Steadman finished second at the 4A state meet last year, but he’s had his eyes on a first-place finish all season.
“Since summer time we’ve been focused on running our hills hard and running our turns hard to get those extra seconds out of our races,” he said. “I fell like none of these guys have really beat me before, but you know nothing’s for certain, so I was glad to finish first and get that.”
Mountain View’s other top runners were Wyatt Jeppson in fifth, Kyle Chipman in sixth, Maverik Dutson in eighth and Ammon Larsen in 12th.
The battle for the girls title was much closer, but the Bruins prevailed with a score of 62 points, with Green Canyon in second with 85 and Orem in third with 88.
“So today the focus was, they came up with a mantra to defense the team and defend each other, and really support each other through the race one mile at a time,” said Strauss.
Mountain View’s top five finishers were Sophie Waite in sixth, June Zimmerman in seventh, Julie Moore in 11th, Lily Waite in 12th and Ashlyn May in 26th.
Moore was the individual title last season, and even a repeat wasn’t in the cards on Tuesday, Strauss was extremely proud of her effort to secure valuable team points.
“She didn’t quit fighting, she stuck it out and still honored her team and we needed those points,” said Strauss.
Park City’s Flach ended up finishing third with a time of 18:14.20, with Embley in fourth in 18:22.34.
Team scores
Girls individual results
Team scores
Boys individual results (top 100)