Region 9 Championships

It was a much warmer day than usual (as has been pretty much this whole season!) up at Bicentennial Park in Cedar City, site of the 2015 Region 9 Championships; however, that didn't stop the Panthers from having an outstanding day.

     In the Middle School race, our Youngsters Boys placed 3rd overall - led by Scottie Bushar in 2nd and Bryan Richardson in 10th - and our Girls claimed first by placing 6 in the top 10; led by Sarah Snow in 1st, Alli Baker 4th, Jessica Hill 7th, Pyper Holt 8th, Gracie Clements 9th and Kya Cottam 10th.

    The JV races saw continued Pine View domination.  The girls started strong and carried it throughout the race.  Brianna Loya had her best race of the season and won in decided fashion.  She was followed by Sylvia Brown in 2nd, Addi Baker 3rd, Seanne Smith 5th and Megan Finch 8th to win 19 to 41 (Cedar).  The JV girls saw many other great races too: Brynnli Borrowman ran a break-out race; Kaylee Benson ran very well and Destiny Rios continued to show great improvement.  The boys continued the winning ways using our depth to take the team title 27 to 32 over DH.  Placing in the top 10 were Paul Gaona 3rd, Jason Hall 4th, Andrew Nielsen 5th, Jake Taylor 7th and Logan Hall 8th.  Mikey Abegglen continues to race very strong; Xander Reese had his best race of the season; and Aiden Taylor had a particularly strong race as well.

     The Varsity races started strong with the girls winning their 2nd straight Region Title!  Although DH (53) and Cedar (57) ran strong races and have both shown great improvement over the season, our depth and pack running was too much to overcome.  Meskerem Stucki took over the race at about 1.5 miles and never looked back.  She ended up winning the Region Title by 6 seconds over teammate Rylee Holt who ran strong throughout to claim the runner-up position.  She was followed by Caroline Clements in 4th, Josie Bushar in 8th, Ellie Bushar 10th, Jacey Finch 11th and Alli Peterson 14th.
     The boys then ran their best race against nationally ranked DH in years and took a solid 2nd at 22 to 38 (with Cedar 3rd at 82).  Nick Hill finished strong and narrowly got out-kicked to finish in 3rd.  The races of the day belonged to our next 3 finishers with Dallen Gillespie finishing 4th, Mitch Price taking 7th and Carson Horspool taking 10th and medaling in his first true Varsity race.  Our scoring rounded out with Skylar Abel finishing 14th; he was followed by Preston Warby in 16th and Alex Hill in 21st.

This was an outstanding meet!  We loved the support from parents and family, administration, PVXC'ers 4 Ever, and other members of the Panther community.
Thanks to our Seniors for all the great memories, your hard work and dedication, and your example to help keep building this program for many more years and many more great Region races!  We love you and will miss you.
Check out the Spectrum's and the St. George News' articles about the Region 9 Championships.

End of (Regular) Season Review

On the eve of the Region 9 Championships - held Tuesday, Oct. 13th, at Bicentennial Park in Cedar - let's get an update on how the 2nd half of the season went.
Races -
Canyon View Invite - The CV Invite, held at CVHS, gave our JV runners a chance to shine.  The B Team girls ran an awesome race and won the meet!  The B team boys (which consist of runners 11-17) also had a great meet and placed 3rd to CV's varsity and DH's full JV.
Nebo Invite - Our overnight trip this year, the team ran great at Nebo.  The Varsity boys placed a very close 4th, just 9 total seconds and 10 points off of 2nd.  Nick Hill led the team with a very solid 5th place finish.  The girls B team ran very solid and was led by Addi Baker who placed 20th in the Varsity race.  The JV boys looked very impressive on their way to a 65 point victory.
Bob Firman Invite - This same weekend as Nebo, the Varsity girls traveled to the prestigious Bob Firman Invite in Boise.  The girls ran great for their first race on a national level stage placing 5th (winning the tie-breaker over Timpanogos) behind #1 ranked Great Oak and top 10 teams American Fork and Davis.  Meskerem Stucki had a break-out race, placing in the top 20.  And Rylee Holt recorded the 2nd fastest Freshman time of the day in all races.
Cedar Invite - On the boys side, the main goal of the Cedar Invite was to decide varsity placement for Region.  As such, we pulled #1 Nick Hill out of the race and let the other guys battle it out.  The team ran very well and ended up winning the meet by placing 6 in the top 20!  Dallen Gillespie led the pack with a 6th place finish.  The A Team for the girls sat out the meet allowing the B Team to run another strong Varsity race, placing 6th.  Racing our 12-18 boys, the JV came home with another invite win, led by Logan Hall who claimed the individual title.  The greatest improvements on the day came from many of our JV runners, who saw improvements of 3+ minutes on the course from earlier in the season.
Snow Canyon Invite - The SC Invite gives the JV one more race to get a solid time on a fast course.  They ran very well on the hot day and put up some great times.

Athletes of the Week - let's catch up a bunch of weeks again...
Brynnli Borrowman - A first year runner for us, Brynnli has shown great improvement this season.  Only a Sophomore, she has a bright future ahead of her in running.
Carli Kimzey - Carli, a Junior, has had the opportunity to run numerous Varsity races this season and has done extremely well.  She brings a consistency and persistence to the young upper JV runners that has really helped them improve this season.
Mikey Abegglen - A Freshman, Mikey has run in our Youngsters program for a number of years.  This season, Mikey has shown great potential and improvement.  He will be a force to recon with for the next three seasons.
Tyler Evans - Another Freshman, Tyler has worked extremely hard this season.  Because of this, his improvement has been some of the best on the team.
Sasha Salinas - Another Freshman, Sasha has pushed through the difficult hot hours and hours it takes to run XC in Southern Utah.  Her example of hard work and dedication is admired by everyone on the team.
Jake McArthur - Jake came to our team at the beginning of the school year from out-of-state.  A Sophomore, Jake always influences everyone for the better with his positive attitude and great work ethic.
Alex Hill - Alex, a Sophomore, has been one of our top runners since he was a Freshman.  This year, he has worked extremely hard to secure a Varsity spot for Region - solidified by a great run at the Cedar Invite.
Destiny Rios - A Freshman, Destiny is new to running with our team this year.  The team has loved having her great attitude and humor to keep us all positive and working hard.

Rankings -
The boys have moved into the "receiving mention" column for the SW rankings from Milesplit.  They are doing a great job and to start getting this pub in arguably the deepest Region in the US shows they are one of the top teams we have ever had at PV.
The girls are continuing to "receive mention" as well.  There are a lot of great teams in the SW, and our girls have proven that they are one of the top programs in the Region.

Team Pics

Team pics are up!  Check out the link to '15 Team Pics and all the other pictures for the year over to the right.