State XC 2012

It was a beautiful day for the 2012 Utah 3A State Championships held at Sugarhouse Park.
The girls came into the meet thinking a top 4 team placing was possible and although we didn't quite get that, there were some great runs and some valuable lessons learned.  Park City and Ogden proved to be the class of the 3A field and ran some of the fastest team times in Utah history - and Cedar's Aimee Bryson set a new state record.  Leading the pack for PV was Rachel Stone running a strong 10th place and finishing as the 2nd fastest time in PVXC history with a 19:09.  Rachel was followed by Jessica Peterson (31st - 20:32), Mia Hart (33rd - 20:40).  Liz Lunt ran a strong 4th for the team placing 43rd with a 20:56.  Rounding out our scoring was Kaelie Gillespie who ran a 21:56 for 73rd.  Taylor Boyer placed 81st with a 22:07 and Aubrey McBride placed 103rd with a 22:57.  Despite placing 6th, this was the 2nd fastest team time in PVXC history (only to last year's time).

The boys also had hopes of a high finish at State and found themselves in position for 2nd/3rd throughout much of the race before dropping back to finish 5th.  Michael Finch ran very well and placed 3rd in a new school record time of 15:39!  Byron Warby ran a strong 16:30 (14th fastest time in PV history) to place 20th - and he will be coming back as the 3rd ranked returner next year.  Casey Kimzey (28th - 16:43), Paul Gaona (43rd - 17:02, new PV Freshman record holder and fastest Freshman in 3A!), and Matthew Young (47th - 17:06) rounded out the scoring.  Jason Lindhardt placed 57th in 17:19 and Colton Bowler placed 75th in 17:41.  The boys also ran the 2nd fastest time in our history.

Overall this was a very positive season.  We have set ourselves up for many good years in the future.  We will greatly miss our Seniors - you have all meant a lot to our program.  Thanks so much for all you have done.

2012 Region 9 Championships

Another solid performance from the Pine View Panthers at the Region 9 Championships held last night (10/9/12) at Bicentennial Park - the Region North Course - in Cedar.  Here's The Spectrum's article.  Everyone ran their guts out and we are all proud of how all the Panther harriers did.
As usual, the Youngsters got us off to a great start in the Middle School race.  The race was an estimated 1.8 miles on the medium and short loops of the course (leaving out the long loop).  Sergio Diaz continued his near perfect season with a region championship in a time of 11:32.  Other PVXC Middle Schoolers who place in the top 10 were Dallen Gillespie (5th) and William Ward (10th).  Alli Peterson made it a sweep for the Panthers with her victory in a time of 14:00.  She was followed by Rylee Holt (2nd), Cristina Gaona (4th), Jacey Finch (5th), and Rachel Lusk (8th).  We are very proud of our Youngsters program and look forward to many more years of contributions from them.
The JV girls placed 3rd and had probably their best race of the season.  They were led by Aubrey McBride who finished 6th and was the top non-Cedar runner in the race.  Megan Finch, Chancie Johnson, Erin Farish and Meskerem Stucki rounded out the scoring runners for the ladies.
The JV boys had another very strong race and nearly perfect scored the meet placing 5 in the top 6 and 7 in the top 13.  Matthew Young was crowned JV champ as he outkicked a DH runner in a time of 16:57.  3rd place was Kyler Prisbrey followed closely by Taylor Abel and Taylor Hobbs.  This was a great race and prepares the Panthers to fill in next year's Varsity spots very well.
The Varsity girls went out hard trying for their 3rd straight Region title.  Through the first two miles the race with Cedar was very close, but in the end we came up just a little short.  Rachel Stone ran a very gusty race and finished 2nd breaking 19 with a time of 18:58 (our 2nd fasted time on this course ever).  Jessica Peterson placed 6th (our 5th best time) and she was followed by Mia Hart (9th - 8th ever) to round out our top 10 finishers.  Liz Lunt (20th) and Taylor Boyer (27th) also made the team proud and really went for it throughout the whole race to finish off our scoring.
Like the girls, the guys were looking to extended a consecutive Region streak - to 6th - but also came up just short.  Michael Finch finished his season undefeated in Region and now looks toward pulling the upset at State after winning in a time of 15:39 and setting our school record on the SUU/North Course as well as the all-time course record (excepting the short year of 2010).  Casey Kimzey was our other top 10 finisher placing 7th with a strong race from beginning to end.  Totaling our points were Byron Warby (13th), Colton Bowler (18th), and new Freshman record holder for the course Paul Gaona (27th) in his first Varsity race ever.
Although the results may not have been totally what we wanted, their was some great running done by many of our athletes.  We are super proud of everyone and the hard work that has been put in this season.  Great job Panthers!

Ahtlete of the Week - Snow Canyon

The Athletes of the Week from our Snow Canyon meet are Reed Burr and Brianna Esplin.  Both have seen great improvement throughout the season and have worked very hard to get there.
Reed, a Junior, has seen his times drop from the 19's to the low 17's in the last couple races (17:03 - Cedar and 17:05 - SC).  And he has been placing as one of the top JV runners as well.  It is great to see Reed's commitment to practice and the team paying off for him this year.  Reed has a love for hairless chihuahuas, and one of his life's goals is to get one and name him Saint Ralph. 
Brianna, a Freshman, came out this summer and has seen steady improvement throughout the year.  You can find her always pushing herself and others around her every practice.  At Snow Canyon she had her best race of the year and placed as our 4th JV runner.  Brianna enjoys making her own paper clip jewelry while listening to Led Zeppelin in the dark of her grandmother's underground cellar.

Snow Canyon Invite

A bit warm over to Snow Canyon yesterday, but some good results on the new SC course (do to the flooding a month ago).  The Youngsters ran well with many top 5 finishes by PV runners - including Sergio Dias (2nd boys), Cristina Gaona (4th girls) and Rylee Holt (5th girls).
Many of the schools ran their full squads (except us and DH), so it may have looked as if PV got a bit swamped on the girls side, but the JV girls ran well.  Aubrey McBride was the leading PV lady (good to have her getting back from injury a little), followed by Megan Finch, Chancie Johnson, Brianna Esplin and Erin Farish to round out our scorers.  The boys were led by Braden Johnston who placed a solid 11th in 16:20, followed by Paul Gaona (13th), Taylor Hobbs (14th), Matt Young (15th) and Kyler Prisbrey (22nd) to help the boys place 2nd to a full strength Cedar squad - a good strong showing for our JV boys as they fought over the 2 Varsity spots that are still in a little bit of flux.
It was especially nice to see the progress in some of our younger runners.  Those that are coming to practice and putting in a full effort are really starting to see it pay off as we prepare for Region next week.

Athlete of the Week - Cedar

Some good strong races by Maquel Millward and Casey Kimzey have earned them the Athlete of the Week awards for the Cedar Invite.
Maquel, a Junior, has worked very hard all year to overcome some major shin splint issues and is really starting run well for us.  At Cedar she finished as the 3rd JV runner on our team, and we look forward to continued improvement in the next few weeks.  Maquel loves Appropriate Tuesdays and various ugly things.  She hates calendars because they remind her of months... many many months - even years.
Senior harrier, Casey Kimzey, had one of his strongest races ever at Cedar.  Casey, a team captain, has worked very hard to be a strong #2 on our team - even giving up soccer to work on solidifying his position.  His sub 16 at Cedar was a PR and put the team in a great scoring position.  Casey enjoys raucous games of Risk and Battleship and would rather not play card games with 1 armed chimps.

Cedar Invite

The XC team headed to the Cedar Invite last Friday at Cedar HS.  This meet is a great opportunity for our runners to judge their improvement for the year since it is also the first race we run each year.
As usual, the Youngsters started us off very well.  Alli P. led the girls with a strong time of 12:30 for the 1.75 mile course.  Sergio D. ran a great race and won the boys race in a time of 10:33.
In the high school races, the JV girls saw many PR's and big improvements off of the first race of the season.  The Varsity girls didn't run their best, but still managed a 3rd place finish behind Rachel Stone's 5th place finish.  When the scoring was broken down to just our region schools, the girls ended up 2nd behind Cedar, but not too close like we were last week when we actually beat Cedar in the broken down region scoring.
The boys JV really hammered the course again this week finishing all scorers in the top 10 and getting a score of 36.  Paul Gaona ran a great race to place 2nd in 16:31 for the 2.95 mile course.  He was followed by Matt Young in 16:47, Taylor Hobbs in 16:54, Nick Hill in 16:55, Kyler Prisbrey in 17:00 and Reed Burr finished just outside the top 10 with a 17:03.  The Varsity boys showed some strong improvements and bounced back from last week's less than impressive run with a 2nd place showing to DH.  Despite running a little flat Micheal Finch (a little blurp about Mikey on Milesplit) was able to pull out the win in the last 1/2 mile with a time of 15:07 (just a few seconds off the course record),.  Casey Kimzey ran his strongest race of the year and placed 13th (15:53) followed closely by Byron Warby in 15:54.  Jason Lindhard (16:08) and Colton Bowler (16:19) rounded out our scoring.
After many great races and time improvements it is now time to focus toward Region.  The JV's will be racing at Snow Canyon on Wednesday and then Region will be held at Bicentennial Park in Cedar on Tuesday the 9th.