3 preps garner football awards

Three Utah high school football players were named by Student Sports as junior and sophomore all-Americans this month.

The three players are Fremont's Austin Raught, Logan's Riley Nelson and Cottonwood's Alex Cate. All three were named to the Deseret Morning News All-State football team this past year.

Cate passed for 3,437 yards and 40 touchdowns in leading the surprising Colts to the 5A state championship game, before coming up short against Davis.

Nelson enjoyed an incredible season this year by passing for 2,802 yards, rushing for 1,152 yards and finishing with a combined 46 touchdowns.

Raught, who is a tremendous possession receiver, set a new state record with 86 receptions. He also finished with a state-best 14 receiving touchdowns. His 1,165 receiving yards were second only to teammate Trevor Higley.

Student Sports bases its all-American teams on a player's accomplishments, and not necessarily their recruiting potential.

TRACK STARS: Several Utah athletes turned in impressive performances at the Olympic Oval during an indoor meet last Saturday.

Highly touted Heidi Houle from Mountain View turned in the fastest 800 meters in state history at 2 minutes, 9.6 seconds. It is also the fastest time in the nation this year.

Other notable girls performances were: Nachelle Stewart won the 200 with a time of 25.44, while twin sister Natalie ran the 400 in 58.50. Judge's Samantha Gaffney won the 1,600 with a 5:09.9. Davis' Ashley Cannon ran the 60-meter hurdles in a time of 9.27, good enough to make the national list. Orem's Mallory Minister jumped 17 feet, 6 1/2 inches to win the long jump.

On the boys side, Roy's Chris Carter tuned in one of the fastest 400 times in the country this year with a 49.01. Springville's Taylor Gardner won the 800 in 1:59.6. Riverton's Eric Goldhardt turned in the top field performance in the long jump with a leap of 21-11.

The indoor season concludes this weekend at the Simplot games at Idaho State University. According to Davis coach Roger Buhrley, the meet is the most prestigious indoor meet of the season.

HOOP PICKS CONTEST: Enter the Deseret Morning News' Hoop Picks contests and pick winners of each game in the state prep basketball tournaments. Best pickers win cash and T-shirt prizes.

Contests are held for both the boys and girls competitions in 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A. Go the the newspaper's Web site, deseretnews.com/preps to enter. (Consolation games are not included in the contest.)

Prep tourneys begin Wednesday, with the 1A girls, and conclude in early March.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com