Miner adjustments

After Bingham's track and field team blew a gasket at the state meet last weekend, coach Jeff Arbogast plans to rebuild, tweak and fine-tune the Miners' program so that next season, the ride is a state title victory lap.

The girls team finished second in Region 3 and took sixth place (40 points) at the state meet. Tough to compare the Miners performance with 5A champion Davis after they blitzed the field for 142 points.

There are questions about the boys, too. The team won the region but managed only 39 points and a ninth-place finish at state, well behind 5A champion Mountain View, which posted 78.5 points.

"We're just not a complete team," Arbogast said.

After watching his girls and boys teams produce good results in the sprints and distance events, Arbogast says the teams need better production from the field events.

"In high school, you really have to play with what you have," he says. "It's just a matter of getting more kids out there that can score at a state level."

Both boys and girls teams fell flat in the field posting only a handful of points in the region championships.

This season, newest rival Riverton challenged the Miners. The Silverwolves beat the Bingham girls team 182-139 at the region championship. Bingham's boys were able to knock off Riverton 201-148.5.

Arbogast says that the rivalry between the two schools should make track and field stronger in Region 3.

"The fun thing is to have competition," he said. "It's really nice to have schools that can push."

If the Miners can retool in the field events, look out because they've always had good sprinters, hurdlers and distance runners. Their biggest loss this season will be hurdler and long jumper Zack Cook. The senior took third place at the state meet in the 300 meter hurdles with time of 39.55.

Sprinter and long jumper Rich Hansen will also be missed. Hansen is the defending region champion in the long jump.

On the girls' side, Kim Quinn returns for her senior year. The distance runner took second place at BYU in the 3,200 meters with a time of 10:53.92. Only a handful of girls in high school track and field can come close to that time.

Davis star Candace Eddy won the two-mile race with a time of 10:52.76. Quinn also ran with Bingham's medley relay team (4:13.52), which finished second to Davis (4:08.13).

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E-mail: tpeterson@desnews.com