State records fall — again — at BYU Invitational

PROVO — For Dana Strauss and Trevor Heiner, it was like instant replay at Saturday's BYU Invitational track meet. For the second week in a row, the Alta High hurdling star and the Viewmont high-jump ace set new 5A state records, just as they did at last weekend's Davis High Invitational.

Those records, along with new 4A state marks set by five Mountain View athletes, capped the 3A-5A competition at BYU on a picture-perfect, if not overly warm, afternoon.

Strauss actually set two state marks in Provo in both the 100-meter and 300m hurdles. But, technically, she ran a faster time in Kaysville last weekend. She won the BYU race in 14.65 seconds, slightly slower than her time at Davis last week. But the record hadn't been recorded as of Saturday's race, so her time in Provo is the new 5A record until the time she set at Davis is later certified.

What the talented Alta senior did break in Provo was the state 300 hurdle mark. She won in a time of 43.54 seconds, edging Mountain View's Heidi Houle by .18 seconds.

"I really wasn't sure I had the strength to go after the record, although that's what I was shooting for," said Strauss, who recently committed to Utah State. "My legs kind of felt like jelly earlier, but with Heidi and Diane (Stewart, of Spanish Fork) both in the race, I kind of felt a shot of adrenaline once we hit the straightaway."

Heiner bested the 5A state high jump mark by a quarter-inch, winning with a jump of 6-10.5. Last week he had a personal best of 6-10.25 in Kaysville. Once again, his effort Saturday is the best high-jump mark recorded in Utah this year either for a prep athlete or a collegian.

Leif Arrehnius of Mountain View set a new state mark in the shotput with a throw of 63-8.25. That was nearly eight feet further than his nearest competitor. He also won the discus with a throw of 164-11.

"Leif just continues to improve each week," said his coach, Dave Houle.

As the meet drew to a close, another group of Bruins made their coach proud in the girls 1,600m relay. The team of Heidi Houle, Melynne King, Ann Marie Thomas and Heidi Magill set both the 4A and all-time state record in a time of 3:53.32. That beat the previous 4A mark set in 1993 by American Fork, and is .05 seconds faster than the previous best recorded in 1999 by Kearns High.