Desert Hills girls and boys win season-opening track meet at Snow Canyon

Written by Jeff Richards
March 10, 2019
Desert Hills teammates Jenna Welch (center) and Darci Nielsen (right) compete in the 100-meter hurdles, Snow Canyon Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 8-9, 2019 | Photo by Dave Larson, St. George News / Cedar City News

ST. GEORGE — The high school track and field season started Friday and Saturday as Snow Canyon High hosted the season-opening meet on its new track.

High jump, Snow Canyon Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 8-9, 2019 | Photo by Dave Larson, St. George News / Cedar City News

The two-day invitational meet attracted teams from 19 schools, including all seven Region 9 programs, plus a dozen smaller schools from around the area.

Desert Hills was the overall winner in both the girls and boys meets. In the girls competition, the Lady Thunder scored a total of 165 team points, while Cedar was a distant second with 86 and third-place Canyon View scored 78.

For the boys, Desert Hills earned a total of 152 points, while Pine View placed second with 90 and Cedar took third with 71. See the top 10 team placings at bottom of story.

“The last couple weeks have been big training weeks for our team,” said Desert Hills girls head coach Logan Fielding. “It was great to see so many big performances this early in the season. Our girls team has crazy depth this year in a lot of events, and our boys team is extremely strong again this year.”

The Desert Hills boys are the reigning 4A state champions, while the Desert Hills girls placed second in state to region rival Cedar last year.

“It was a fun way to start the season and spring break with both boys and girls teams getting the win,” Fielding added.

Long jump, Snow Canyon Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 8-9, 2019 | Photo by Dave Larson, St. George News / Cedar City News

Highlights for the Desert Hills girls included senior Abby Monson winning both the discus and shot put events. Her best discus toss was 112 feet, 9 inches, while runner-up Karlee Eyre of Panguitch threw 95 feet, 9 inches. Monson’s winning shot put throw was 34 feet, 1 inch.

Also for Desert Hills, senior Samantha Nelson won the 3200 meter run with a time of 11:28.11. Fellow DHHS senior Trinity Schimbeck won the 800 meter run with a time of 2:22.35, narrowly edging Cedar seniors Kaysie Klemic and Mic Webster, who finished with respective times of 2:22.59 and 2:23.77.

Desert Hills also had four of the top eight finishers in the 300-meter hurdles, led by senior Chloe Taylor, who won with a time of 46.02 seconds. Taylor also finished second in the 100-meter hurdles, her time of 15.54 coming just behind Snow Canyon sophomore Darcy Jackson, who won the event in 15.40.

For the Desert Hills boys, highlights included Kire Goulding winning the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 40.68 seconds. He also placed second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.81. Spencer Carlile, a sophomore at Dixie High, won the latter event in 15.32.

In field events, junior Ammon Smith of Desert Hills won the high jump by clearing 6 feet, 2 inches.

The Desert Hills boys also had three of the top four placers in the discus, led by senior Ryan Warner, who won with a throw of 157 feet, 5 inches. Sophomore teammate Peyton Williams placed second with 149 feet even and Mason Liti took fourth with 144 feet, 4 inches.

Desert Hills also won two of the boys relay events and one of the girls relays.

Senior Wyatt VanOrden of Wayne High competes in the long jump, Snow Canyon Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 8-9, 2019 | Photo by Dave Larson, St. George News / Cedar City News

The meet also featured numerous other noteworthy performances, including some from athletes at smaller schools. For instance, Wayne High senior Wyatt VanOrden won the long jump with a leap measuring 20 feet, 6 inches, easily qualifying him for the state meet (the state qualifying distance for 1A schools like Wayne is 19 feet 0 inches, but VanOrden’s leap surpassed even the 4A qualifying mark of 20 feet, 3 inches).

For complete official meet results, click here.

In exactly two months, Snow Canyon will once again be the host school, as the Region 9 championships will be held there May 8-9. That meet will be followed by the state meet at Brigham Young University in Provo on May 17-18.

Until then, invitational meets will be hosted at several Region 9 schools throughout the season, including at Pine View March 22-23, at Hurricane March 29-30, at Desert Hills April 5-6, at Dixie April 12-13 and at Cedar April 26-27. Additionally, Canyon View is hosting two JV level meets, and Pine View has a relays-only meet on April 9. Many teams will also compete at the BYU Invitational in Provo May 3-4, two weeks before the state meet.

Snow Canyon Invitational, Girls Top 10 Team Scores

  1. Desert Hills, 165.
  2. Cedar, 86.
  3. Canyon View, 78.
  4. Hurricane, 71.5.
  5. Pine View, 62.
  6. Dixie, 42.
  7. Parowan, 28.
  8. Snow Canyon, 25.5.
    9    t. Panguitch 25.
    9t. Enterprise 25.

Snow Canyon Invitational, Boys Top 10 Team Scores

1. Desert Hills, 152.
2. Pine View, 90.
3. Cedar, 71.
4t. Snow Canyon, 67.
4t. Canyon View, 67.
6. Hurricane, 66.
7. Dixie, 46.
8. Page, Arizona, 40.
9. Parowan, 31.
10. Beaver, 28.

Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have two young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!