Emery boys take region track title
| Kyle Johansen jumps six feet for a first place finish. |
The Emery High boys track team, after having finished second the last few years, went to the region meet this year determined to win and they did exactly that, they won. Emery scored 99 points to Delta’s 92 points. Juan Diego was third with 60 points, Carbon was fourth with 59 points and North Sanpete was fifth with 23 points.
North Sanpete’s girls took the region title again with 107 points followed by Delta with 88 points, Juan Diego with 62 points, Emery next with 41 points and Carbon fifth with 35 points.
Coach Darrell Gardner on his team, “This group of boys got together last Monday and committed to doing whatever it took to win the region title this year. They plotted to score as many points as possible and all committed to running in any race that they could score points in.”
Coach Gardner continued, “We were doing well in the meet but we really gained some momentum when Cort Jensen took second place in the 1600 meters. After Levi Swasey got hurt, Cort then stepped up in the medley relay in Levi’s place and helped Emery place. Zac Clement also had a big day as he had his best effort of the season by placing in three events. Zac stepped up and threw the javelin 162 feet to grab first place and having been in the 140’s all year. These guys just wanted the championship.”
Tyler Killpack led the way with first place finishes in the 400m and the 800m, a fourth place finish in the 3200m and by anchoring the 4x400m relay team to a first place finish.
Zac Clement finished first in the javelin at 162’8″ to win by 7 feet, second in the shot put and fourth in the discus. Mark DeFriez edged JT Noyes for first in the long jump by 2 inches as Emery took first and second. Kyle Johansen had his best jump of the year as he won the high jump with a jump of 6 feet.
Levi Swasey took first in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the 300 hurdles after injuring a knee in the race. Levi expects to be fine for the state meet. McKay Allred took first in the 300 hurdles. McKay also took third in the 3200m. Cort Jensen took second in the 1600m.
On the 4×400 relay team were Blake Jensen, Jake Gardner, McKay Allred and Tyler Killpack. On the 4×100 relay team that finished third were Vern Kofford, Jake Gardner, JT Noyes and Mark Defriez. On the Medley relay team that also finished third were Vern Kofford, Mark Defriez, Jake Gardner and Cort Jensen.
Leading the Spartan girl’s track team was Nikki Rogers. Rogers took first in the 100m, second in the 200m, fifth in the long jump and anchored the 4x100m relay team to a second place finish. Also on the relay team were Lacey Montgomery, Tenison Fauver and Barbie Powell.
Madison Jensen finished second in the long jump and third in the high jump despite suffering from shin splints all day. Montgomery took fourth in the 800m and Rebekah Bott finished fourth in the 3200m.
Academic All-State was also announced. Region 8 took six of the 10 positions on that team with Emery grabbing three of those spots. Tamra Luke, Madison Jensen and Billie Jean Reed all made the team with a 4.0 grade point average.