Teams rise, records fall at boys state meet

PROVO — Five boys team champions were crowned at the high school track and field state championships at Brigham Young University Saturday, with individual standouts stealing the show.

Davis ran away with its second title in three years in the 5A ranks, with Box Elder taking its fifth title of this century in 4A. Judge Memorial dominated in 3A, with Richfield and Panguitch edging out their competition by the slimmest of margins to repeat as champions in the 2A and 1A classifications, respectively.

On this day, however, it was the individual standouts that made the meet memorable.

First there was Judge Memorial's Luke Puskedra, who broke the all-classifications state record in the 3,200-meter run for the second time in two weeks, polishing off the win in 9:04.63. And don't forget his teammate, Colin Boevers, who dominated once again in the shot put, eclipsing the field with a throw of 65 feet, 4.75 inches.

The star in 4A was Mountain Crest's Justin Hedin, who showed endurance and grit in winning the 400-meter dash (48.58 seconds), then doubled back less than two hours later to triumph in the 800-meter run (1:53.95). With his win in the mile on Friday, Hedin collected four state championships on the weekend.

"Your body's going to tell you not to do it, but it's all in your mind," Hedin said after the 800 win. "You've just got to push through and see what you can do."

He pushed through again just 25 minutes later, anchoring the Mustangs' first-place medley relay team.

Another athlete making a case for MVP was Timpanogos sprinter Silas Pimentel, who topped the 5A record in the 100-meter dash, winning in 10.66 seconds to top Rod Wilkerson's 1997 record by .01 seconds. Pimentel also triumphed in the 200 (21.81 seconds), and anchored the T-wolves' victorious 4x100-meter relay squad (41.80 seconds), storming back to edge Bingham by 0.03 seconds in the race of the day to that point.

All points considered, it was a very good day.

5A: Davis dominated from the get-go, getting top marks across the board to send departing coach Roger Buhrley out on a high note. "Usually the state meet is a roller coaster with the highs and the lows, but there haven't been very many lows from the team standpoint," Buhrley said.

"I don't know if this isn't, from top to bottom, the most talented group that I've ever had."

Distance star Jared Ward won the 3,200 Saturday, and anchored the Darts' first-place medley relay team. Thrower Bryce Hall collected another state title, winning the shot put with a throw of 62 feet, 11 inches.