High school cross country: St. Joseph girls, Piute boys roll to 1A titles

Whether on a cross country course or a track, St. Joseph stars Alex Shaw, Andrea Chavez and Tauna DeHaan have simply battled and battled and battled with Monticello star Macee Nielson whenever they've crossed paths over the past two years.

Since becoming eligible to compete in high school races, the four terrific juniors have been the cream of the crop in 1A, and the resulting competition between them has been awfully fun to watch.

They added another exciting chapter to their running rivalry at the 1A cross country championships Wednesday morning at Sugarhouse Park.

For the third straight season, Shaw, Chavez, DeHaan and Nielson composed the top four places at the 1A meet, and for the third straight season, there was a different winner.

Two years removed from Neilson winning and a year from Chavez winning, it was Shaw's turn. Shaw stayed just ahead of Nielson throughout the 3-mile race and held on at the end to win, 19 minutes and 37 seconds to 19:56.7. Chavez, who gutted out a bad back injury, finished third and DeHaan finished fourth.

As a team, St. Joseph cruised to a dominant win on the girls side, besting second-place Wayne, 26 places to 75. Monticello was third with 75 places.

Meanwhile, Piute's boys team used its excellent depth to clinch back-to-back state titles, as the Thunderbirds beat St. Joseph, 47-79.

Dalaki Livingston of Milford was 1A's other winner, as he posted an impressive individual championship over a pair of St. Joseph runners.

In Shaw's case, she ran strong from start to finish, and she had what it took to beat Nielson and her Jayhawk teammates.

"I've been trying for three years, and I finally did it, even though I've had some injuries that kept me out of running," said Shaw, who's dealt with a fractured wrist and a strained MCL this year. "I still pushed through the pain."

Pushing through pain is also what Chavez did. Last year's girls champ raced Wednesday with a herniated disc in her back but still finished in third place.

"I'm proud of her because she had to push through a lot of pain," said St. Joseph coach Lisa Reed. "That isn't a toughness that we had seen from her before — to push through that pain, but she did it."

Shaw, Chavez and DeHaan actually didn't know about Nielson before their first 1A state meet as freshmen, but they've long since figured out about her.

During that first race two years ago, Reed said that her three stars thought they were leading convincingly — only to figure out later that they were actually way behind Nielson.

"We laugh about it now," Reed said.