Batty paces Beetdiggers to first-ever state crown

"Well of course they worked very hard, obviously, this year," he said. "We really wanted to give Mountain View a strong challenge, and it says a lot about Utah County programs that the top seven teams in both divisions (boys and girls) came from down south. I think we push each other, which makes us work that much harder."

Mountain View's Spencer Evenson was second, John Bell of American Fork third and Alden Bahr of Mountain View fourth in a tight race at the front.

Judge Memorial's Smyth and senior teammate Nik Hlady finished their careers with impressive performances as the Bulldogs trounced all comers in 3A. Judge finished with 31 points, beating second-place Cedar by 60 and Lehi by 66. Smyth's clocking of 15:34.6 was almost 50 seconds faster than his winning time a year ago. More important to him was his team's title, coming after finishing second to Cedar last October.

"We began thinking about this last year. It carried over into track last season and we really focused as a team for year," he said. Lehi's Daniel Urry, also a senior, was second at 16:00.6, with Hlady third at 16:07.1.

Juan Diego turned to Kyle Jarrett to help the Soaring Eagle win its first-ever boys' team title with a seven-point victory over defending champ North Summit. Jarrett, who was sixth last year, finished in a time of 16:22.3 to pace Juan Diego. Teammate Fabian Castillo, a junior like Jarrett, was fourth, and junior Danny Crnkovich was seventh.

"It's been a great afternoon," coach Dave Smith said after both his boys' and girls' teams won state titles. "These guys believed in themselves all year long." And with each of the top five finishers coming back next year, Juan Diego is already focusing on repeating.

The most exciting team race of the day was in 1A, where Piute edged St. Joe's by two points, 75-77, to win the Thunderbirds' first-ever state crown in boys' cross country. David Borgeson of St. Joe's won the medalist title as expected in a time of 17:03.7, and teammate Matt Trujillo finished fifth. But Piute sophomore Scott Dalton paced the T-Birds with a sixth-place finish, and when junior Brady King finished 34th overall, Piute had enough points to take the victory. The margin of that win was just eight seconds, as King was that far ahead the runner who finished two behind him. Otherwise, the teams would have tied for the team title.