Y. meet becomes Spanish Fork sisters act

PROVO — They don't have a "family" team category in high school track. Otherwise, the girls' championship trophy from Saturday's BYU Invitational would be resting in the Stewart family living room today.

The Lady Dons of Spanish Fork, propelled largely on the incredible efforts of three Stewart sisters, breezed to the team championship in Provo during the annual tune-up for state championships in two weeks. And in the process, those sisters teamed with junior Marianne Weight to set a state record as well.

Day two of the invite, this time combining athletes from the three largest classifications in the state, produced some great overall marks in addition to Spanish Fork's new 1600-meter record. Box Elder won the boys' team title by 2.5 points over Davis.

But the afternoon belonged to sisters Diane (a junior) and twins Natalie and Nachelle Stewart (freshmen). Nachelle won the day's first final, the 100 meters. Diane followed with victory in the 100 meter hurdles. Before the clock struck 3 p.m., she also won the 300 hurdles, Nachelle captured the 200 meters, and then Natalie edged her sister by just one one-hundredth of a second in the 400 meters.

Take those five victories, each worth 50 points, and the Stewarts scored more individually than runner-up team Davis, which had 49.

"It was a lot of fun out there," Nachelle said, "especially when we got the state record."

The team title had long been decided when Spanish Fork lined up in the seeded 1600-meter relay race. Diane Stewart literally ran to the starting area from the long jump competition (she placed fourth in that as well). Weight started the race for the Dons, handing the baton off to Diane, who passed to Natalie, who then passed it to Nachelle. When she crossed the line in a time of 3:50.70, Spanish Fork had eclipsed the previous state mark of 3:53.37 set by Kearns in 1999.

Other winners on the ladies' side were Mountain View's Heidi Houle in the 800 meters (2:12.59), Park City's Elli Reed with a time of 11:08.84 in the 3200, and Laura Thweatt of Durango, Colo., in the 1600 (5:09.64). Relay winners were the Davis team of Tara Anderson, Ashlee Cannon, Lauren Johnson and Kourtney Sprague in the 400 meters in 48.75; and Judge Memorial in the medley. The team of Samantha Gaffney, Maddy King, Jenna Sliwinski and Asha Richardson won in a time of 4:14.31.

Field event champs were Jordan's Sarah McOmber in the discus (127-5), Alta's Sarah Butler in the javelin (140-9), Viewmont's Ada Robinson in the high jump at 5-6, Shawnee Slade of Taylorsville in the long jump (18-8.5) and Taylorsville's Mele Tangulu in the shot put (38-5.75).