OREM — The past, present and future of prep cross country in Utah all made appearances at Saturday's BYU Autumn Classic at the Cascade Golf Course.

As in the past, Mountain View dominated another meet of Utah powers, winning both the varsity boys' and girls' team titles. For the present, Mountain View's Steve Strickland showed once again why he is the state's premiere male runner. And looking ahead to the future, a talented Bingham High junior and two surprising sophomores have emerged among the best girls in the state.

Strickland had little trouble winning the boys' 5K race, dusting his challengers with a time of 15:46.7 over the links at Cascade. The senior All-American, who is one big reason the Bruins captured last year's national championship and are ranked third thus far this season, said he took it a bit slow the first mile, then began his move as the course headed downhill.

"I've run enough times to know that if I go out too fast, it's a killer the rest of the way," he said. "But when we reached the first downhill part of the race, I knew I had to take off."

Took off he did, beating second-place Bryce Valley senior Levi LeFevre by 34 seconds. Viewmont's Brian McKenna placed third, with Miles Batty of Jordan fourth and Brighton's Jorgen Jacobsen fifth.

In the girls' varsity race, it was Bingham junior Kit Zeigle coming home first, winning in a time of 18:28.6. Jordan sophomore Erin Fuller was second and Fremont soph Lexie Meyer was third.

For Zeigle, the win was especially sweet as she continues her comeback from injuries and illnesses that have plagued her the past two years.

"I always go out slow, like today, but if I feel good, I kind of pick it up," she said. "This course reminds me a lot of Foot Locker West — grass, uphills and downhills — and it's my kind of course."

She said she's in better shape now than she's been in two years, and the Miners hope so. She is showing the same kind of talent that her older sisters Laura and Jackie did for Bingham.

Meyer was pleasantly surprised by her third-place finish. This was her first invitational, as she didn't run last year, focusing on getting ready for softball.

"I told myself that I'd just do my best, even though I felt kind of tired this morning," she said. "It was really a fun race out here today."

The race was marred by the injury suffered by Mountain View senior Heidi Magill. She was leading for the first mile and a half, but while accelerating on an uphill section, she felt a burning in her leg. Her coach, Dave Houle, said Magill thought it was a cramp.