Allred wins gold twice; Johnson and Jorgensen bring home the gold
The two Emery County high schools went into last week’s state track meet with hopes that their star players would do well and the local fans were not disappointed with the results. Three county athletes returned home as state champions with one having double the good results.
Freshman Ashlynn Allred has been talked about all season as the Canyon View junior high student ran well again. Allred won the 100-meters with a time of 12.62. This time was .18 faster than second place, about three steps. In the 200-meters, Allred set a new 2-A state record with a time of 25.50. This was .51 seconds faster than the next racer. Junior Brendan Jorgensen, Castle Dale, won the 300-meter hurdles in 40.29 and Justin Johnson, senior at Green River High, threw well in the javelin and took home the medal with a throw of 182’2.50″.
Allred paced the Lady Spartans to a second place finish in the 2-A girls division. Although far behind pre-meet favorite North Summit, Emery edged out Beaver for their best finish in years. Emery’s region co-horts, San Juan and Grand finished in the next two positions. Emery scored 57 points to Beaver’s 51. North Summit scored 159 points as they won eight events.
Allred finished fourth in the long jump as she still got off a 16’6″ jump despite having a sore knee, which made it more difficult to jump off. Allred also ran the final leg of the 4×100 meter relay and the team finished third. Also on the relay team were Catherine Dyer, Hailee Rogers and Blayr Jeffs.
Brendan paced the Spartans to a seventh place finish with his win. Region 15 teams, Grand and Richfield battled it out for the top spot with Grand winning again this season as they repeated for another state team title.
Justin Johnson scored the only points for the Pirate boys with his win. Taylor Johnson finished eighth in the 100 hurdles and Dallice Johnson finished fourth in the 1-A long jump with a jump of 15’01”. It was a good day to have the Johnson last name.
Hailee Rogers ran a 1:00.30 400-meter final and finished second in the event for the next best finish for a Lady Spartan. Rogers also ran on the 4×400-meter relay team and the team finished second with a time of 4:12.08. Jessica Guymon, Blayr Jeffs and Hanna Dyer were also on the team.
Also placing for the Lady Spartans was Jessica Guymon. Jessica finished third in the 800-meter race and third in the javelin with a throw of 104’4.75″. The sprint medley relay team of Blayr Jeffs, Hailee Rogers, Hanna Dyer and Jessica Guymon finished fourth in the event.
Tyler Rowley also ran the 300-meter hurdles event well and Rowley finished fourth in the event to score for Emery. Scott Jackson finished third in the 400-meters to be the only boy to place in the sprints or distance races. Jackson ran a 50.64.
The three relay teams all placed in the meet. The 4×400 team finished fourth with the 4×100 team and the sprint relay team each finishing seventh. The 4×400 team consisted of Tyler Pulli, David Dyer, Nagel Viera and Scott Jackson. The 4×100 team consisted of Dyer, Jorgensen, Jackson and Jared Shakespeare. The medley team consisted of Dyer, Jackson, Pulli and Rowley.
Emery had four other individuals place in field events. Taylor Hansen finished third in the high jump with a jump of 6 foot with freshman Dillon Wilstead jumping 5’10” and Wilstead finished eighth. Brandon McCandless finished third in the shot put with a throw of 40’1.5″. Jorgensen jumped 20’1″ in the long jump to finish fifth.
While the two Spartan teams finished well and have many of their top athletes returning next season, the teams will need to expand their number of participants competing for the team along with many individuals stepping up with good performances if they want to challenge for team titles. That was the common theme if one looked at the Grand, Richfield or North Summit teams. Those schools take track very seriously and so do those competing on the track or in the field. Never the less, this was a good year for the local high schools.