Judge Memorial dominates 3A boys race

Judge Memorial coach Dan Quinn was excited as his team cruised to its first state cross country title since 1994 Wednesday afternoon at Sugarhouse Park. After serving as runner-up to Ogden the past two years, the Bulldogs broke through in a big way to capture the 3A title with a convincing 49-point victory over second-place Cedar City.

Judge joined Davis, Mountain View, Richfield and St. Joseph as team champions in the annual championships that finish at Highland High School.

Quinn, whose team has developed a very friendly "rivalry" with coach Don Hall and his Ogden Tigers, said he was particularly happy for his two seniors, Matt Scott and Steven Ault.

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"It's been a great four years for them three silvers (for second-place finishes) and at last a gold. I'm glad they finally got it." Coupled with the efforts of junior Charlie Knuth and sophomores Pat Smyth and Nik Hlady, Judge began focusing on winning the state title this past summer.

"The guys really stepped up on their summer mileage," Quinn said. "That made a huge difference. We also increased our speed workouts by about 1000 meters a day. It all paid off."

Hurricane's Tony Jones finished a brilliant cross country career with another 3A medalist performance, winning in a time of 16:00.5.

Scott was second, Smyth third, Hlady seventh and Ault 10th for Judge, which blew away the competition in 3A. Defending champ Davis won the 5A title, holding off Bingham by almost identical scores as last year. This year Davis beat Bingham 48-85 — it was 47-89 a year ago.

The Darts were paced by seniors Jace Nye (second at 15:49.4), Brad Phippen (seventh, 16:13.4) and Mark Oram (eighth, 16:14.5). Weber's Steve Shepherd was medalist with a time of 15:36, the fastest runner of the afternoon.

"It's been a good run for them," Davis coach Roger Buhrley said. "They've worked hard to win another title, and they've been great to coach."