Records fall at largest-ever Pine View Invitational track meet

Written by Jeff Richards
March 26, 2023
High school athletes compete in the Pine View Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 25, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A record number of high school track and field athletes participated in the 31st annual Pine View Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

Dixie’s Caidan Cooper (center) and other athletes compete in the 100-meter dash at the Pine View Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 25, 2023 | Photo by Jacqui Knighton, St. George News

Pine View High School head coach David Holt said the event attracted more than 1,700 athletes from Utah, plus some from Nevada. 

Participants included teams from more than three dozen schools, ranging from 1A through 6A. All seven of Region 10’s 4A schools competed.

Corner Canyon High School, a 6A school in Draper, was the overall winner in both the boy’s and girl’s meets. The Chargers capped off the two-day event on Saturday afternoon by winning both the girl’s and boy’s 4×400 meter relays, establishing new meet records in both races. Corner Canyon’s winning time in the girl’s 4×400 was 3:58.46, while the boys won in 3:22.11. Both times were several seconds faster than the respective runners-up.

High school athletes compete in the Pine View Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 24-25, 2023 | Photo by Jacqui Knighton, St. George News

In the boy’s 3,200-meter run, which Holt said he and other coaches think might be the best 3,200 ever run in Utah, the top three finishers all clocked in at under nine minutes.

Olympus junior JoJo Jourdan won the race in a time of 8:55.57, which Holt said is the second-fastest time in the nation so far this year. Coming in second place was Herriman senior Noah Jenkins, who had a time of 8:56.07, while third-place finisher Liam Heninger of Mountain View finished in 8:56.59.

All three of those times fall among the top 10 all-time among Utah high school athletes, according to the Utah High School Activities Association’s record book.

Fremont senior Amare Harlan also had an outstanding meet, personally accounting for 30 of her team’s 44 total points by taking first place in all three of her events: the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the long jump.

Harlan, who is the state record holder in the 100-meter dash, won that event at Pine View in a time of 11.90 seconds. Her winning time in the 200 was 24.16, and her winning long jump mark was 18 feet, 5.75 inches.

High school athletes compete in the Pine View Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 24-25, 2023 | Photo by Jacqui Knighton, St. George News

Snow Canyon freshman Amelia Nadauld was right on Harlan’s heels in all three events. Nadauld took second in the 200 with a time of 25.01, second in the long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 0.5 inches, and third in the 100 with a time of 12.20.

Other top performances by Southern Utah athletes included the following:

Snow Canyon junior Trevor Gough won the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 39.04. He also placed third in the 110-meter hurdles and eighth in the long jump.

Dixie senior Caidan Cooper won the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.16 seconds. Right behind him with a time of 11.19 was runner-up Tyler West, a junior at Crimson Cliffs.

Snow Canyon senior and reigning 4A javelin champion Bo Hickman won the javelin throw with a mark of 181 feet, 6 inches. Coming in second place in that event was Pine View’s Sawyer Woods, whose top throw measured 169 feet, 8 inches.

Pine View’s Teancum Jensen won the boy’s discus with a top throw of 166 feet, 9 inches. Cedar High’s Dallan DeMille placed second in that event (160 feet, 6 inches), while Panguitch’s Tucker Chappell took third (148 feet, 9 inches). DeMille also placed second in the shot put with a top mark of 50 feet, 6.5 inches. Snow Canyon’s Carson Nowatzke took fifth in the shot put.

Crimson Cliffs junior Austin Eaton won the boys long jump with a leap measuring 22 feet, 5.75 inches. He also placed fourth in the 110 hurdles and eighth in the 300 hurdles.

High school athletes compete in the Pine View Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 25, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News

Owen Iloa of Hurricane placed second overall in the high jump, clearing 6 feet, 4 inches. Senior Bret Heaton of Valley took third place with a mark of 6 feet, 2 inches. Also earning points in that event were Eli Connelly of Crimson Cliffs and Luke Hutchings of Hurricane.

Snow Canyon junior Matt Maclennan placed third in the 300 hurdles and fifth in the 110 hurdles. Hurricane senior Kevin Tillis placed third in the long jump.

Pine View senior Trey Despain finished fourth overall in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:16.95. More than 200 runners in nine heats competed in that event.

On the girls side, Valley High junior Kimber Reeve won the javelin with a throw of 124 feet. Also earning points in that event for finishing among the top eight were Katie Elison of Hurricane, Ella Fielding of Cedar, Kadee Harland of Panguitch and Kate Carter of Hurricane.

Kanab freshman Rylee Little placed second overall in the girls high jump, clearing 5 feet, 2 inches. Crimson Cliffs senior McCall Cottam took third place with a mark of 5 feet, 1 inch. Also earning points in that event were Madi Orton of Kanab, Isi Swift of Pine View and Maci Cottam of Crimson Cliffs. 

High school athletes compete in the Pine View Invitational, St. George, Utah, March 25, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News

In the girls shot put, Cedar High teammates Quncy Esplin and Kiara Hansen placed a respective fifth and sixth, with Pine View’s Tea Wright taking seventh and Milford’s Presley Willden placing eighth. Cedar’s Esplin also took second in the discus with a throw of 114 feet, 6.5 inches. Panguitch senior Alexis Allen finished third in the discus.

Parowan junior Brentlee Mineer took fourth in the girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.79. Placing fifth and sixth in that race were Crimson Cliffs seniors Brinley Campbell (15.80) and Samiyah Jones (16.00), while sophomore Lucy Harris of Desert Hills placed eighth (16.32). Harris also placed seventh in the 300 hurdles, while Snow Canyon junior Lilly Wittwer took fourth in the 300 hurdles, posting a time of 46.46.

Coach Holt said that other meet records set over the weekend included Jared Hartshorn of Lone Peak’s winning time of 1:54.41 in the boys 800-meter run and Mountain View’s winning times in both the boys and girls 4×800 meter relays.

For complete meet results on runnercard.com, click here.

Pine View Invitational, sponsored by MVP Sports

Pine View High School March 24-25, 2023

Top 10 girls team scores

  1. Corner Canyon, 81.
  2. Lone Peak, 69.
  3. Timpanogos, 49.
  4. Fremont, 44. 
  5. Park City, 31.
  6. Juan Diego, 30.
  7. Cedar, 29.
  8. (tie) Wasatch, 28.
  9. (tie) Orem, 28.
  10. Snow Canyon, 27.

Top 10 boys team scores

  1. Corner Canyon, 76.
  2. Snow Canyon, 55.
  3. Herriman, 46.
  4. (tie) Morgan, 45.
  5. (tie) Mountain View, 45.
  6. (tie) Crimson Cliffs, 36.
  7. (tie) Park City, 36.
  8. Cedar, 35.
  9. Pine View, 29.
  10. Woods Cross, 26.5.

Photo Gallery

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!