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Midvale Journal

End of season shows improvement, records fall for young HHS track team

Jul 01, 2021 02:45PM ● By Julie Slama

Hillcrest High sophomore Naoto Robinson, who finished second at region, vaulted his best at 10 feet at the 5A state track and field meet at Davis High and finished behind teammates junior Lucas Bolster, who vaulted 11 feet to finish seventh and junior Jack Nielson, who won the regional title, vaulted 10-feet-6-inches. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

By Julie Slama | [email protected]

Most track and field coaches would be pleased to see improvement, with the end of a season, posting some of their fastest times, best throws and record jumps.

Hillcrest High School track and field athletes didn’t disappoint, despite the fact “we’re young, outside of distance and some male throwers and almost zero depth, especially female sprinters.”

At the 5A region 6 track meet, the girls 4x800 relay (junior Erin Atkinson, seniors Megan Liddiard, Faith Amos and Paris Snow) broke the school record with a 10:23.77 and the boys 4x800 (juniors Charles Hooper and Derek Croft, seniors Caleb Conlon and Anthony Davis) recorded the school’s best with 8:17.97 and won the regional title.

“The girls just really wanted the record,” head coach Scott Stucki said. “They were six seconds away and I figured they could get it if they ran well, but they all ran well on the same day and got it by 18 seconds. The boys 4x800, I was surprised. I knew if they ran well, they had a chance and beat it by one or two seconds. I didn’t think they’d do what they did as fast and get it by 12 seconds.”

Throughout the season, the girls 4x200 relay (sophomore Olivia Backus, junior Keira Sweet, seniors Alaina Stonebraker and Ellie Walker) improved that school record, ending the season with a 1:49.22.

“These are races that we haven’t run a lot, but they’re now in the schedule, so those records will change quite a bit. The sprint relay kept getting faster, faster and faster pretty much every time they ran,” he said adding that their handoffs also improved.

Another season highlight was near the end of spring when senior Anthony Davis broke the 30-year-old 3200 meters record by six seconds with a time of 9:21.21. He was able to meet the former school record holder Dave Griffin at the state meet.

At the state meet, Davis, who won region in both the 1600 and 3200, finished fourth in the 3200. Stonebraker, who placed second in region, finished fourth with a time of 12.8 in the 100-meter dash. Senior Meg Standiford, who won region discus and placed third in shot, finished sixth at state with her best throw at 100 feet in the discus. 

Those three are planning to compete in track at college: Davies at Utah State, Stonebraker for the U.S. Coast Guard and Standiford may try to throw at Dixie State University, Stucki said. Senior sprinter Anthony Vail, who raced at state, plans to play football at Pacific Lutheran University and may run track there as well, he added.

Hillcrest also had a strong showing in the pole vault with freshman Anna Ames, who lead the Hillcrest sweep at region, placed fifth at state with a vault of 9 feet and junior Lucas Bolster vaulted to 11 feet to finish seventh. 

“All three boys in the pole vault PR-ed,” Stucki said about junior Jack Nielson, who won the regional title, vaulting 10-feet-6-inches and sophomore Naoto Robinson, who finished second at region, vaulting 10 feet.

A thrill-turned-disappointment at state was the boys 110 meter hurdles where senior Spencer Holladay, who won the race at region, finished first in what looked like the first state champion for the Huskies before Stucki began coaching the team 15 years ago.

“He hit the ninth hurdle hard, got himself off balance, then hit his hurdle and took out the hurdle in the next lane,” Stucki said. “That kid got through it OK, and it didn’t impede his finish or result, but it’s a textbook DQ, so yeah, pretty disappointing.”

Stucki said it was a season that was like no other he coached. Last year, the team had one home meet before the soft closure of schools for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This was a weird season. I had no clue what we had (as far as athletes); everyone basically had two classes of freshmen or two new groups of unknown because we didn’t have a season last year,” he said, but ended up OK as he was figuring out his traditional baton distribution to record-holders. “I’m needing to order more.”