When you drive down Main or Center Street in Panguitch and see a big yellow school bus parked by the corner in the Joe’s Market parking lot you can guess that something exciting is happening at the schools.
At first when I saw it there, I thought they might be going to put a sign on it advertising the elementary halloween carnival or maybe the high school play, Seussical: The Musical, that is coming up November 16-18, but there was no sign. A couple of hours later the sign appeared.
Panguitch girls cross country had won state.
This was quite a remarkable feat as there were 72 runners in the race and this made the fourth year in a row that the Panguitch girls team had won.
Danny Yardley, Brooke Yardley and Megan Albrecht run an outstanding program and have students running at all times of the year. It’s against the rules for the coaches to hold official practices all summer long, but that doesn’t stop them encouraging the students to run on their own. Most students don’t take the summer off. To be totally correct they run more in the summer than any other time.
This year the team is exceptional. One of the most outstanding runners is Tabetha Henrie. Tabi, as most of us know her by, is an amazing runner and all-around athlete. She is a senior and was able to secure first place at this year’s state meet.
Tabi said she started running a little in 8th grade but felt too stressed when she did not do well. She said, “I thought of my self worth with how I performed and didn’t like it. When I let go, I felt better and did better.”
Despite Tabi’s worries, she continued to improve so that a state win was definitely an attainable goal for her. “Last year I took second and I had a goal to win this year,” she said. “I had good encouragement. My goal was to run it in 18 minutes, and I didn’t quite make it. I ran it in 19.03. But I won.”
Some of the top finishers were from Panguitch, with sophomore Brooke Albrecht finishing fourth at 19:47 and freshman Annie Yardley placing sixth with a time of 20:21. Paisley Henrie, who is a junior, placed 15th. Panguitch left competing teams in the dust with a score of 26.
Here are the top 10 teams and top 15 finishers from along the Byway:
Varsity Girls:
Other runners from the Byway finishing in the top 15 included Bradi Gates, from Bryce Valley, who placed 12th.
The team line-up and scores were as follows:
- Panguitch, 26
- Rich, 50
- Whitehorse, 54
- Monticello, 58
- Altamont, 81
- Milford, 93
- Bryce Valley, 119
- Valley, 122
- Piute, 177
- Wayne, 182
Varsity Boys:
On the boys teams, the competition was fairly tight, especially among athletes along the Byway. Monticello won first place as a team, and Ashton Arnold, from Altamont, placed first individually. Escalante, which won the region title last week, fell behind Panguitch by just one point.
Runners from the Byway finishing in the top 15 included Kade Severe, from Piute, who placed 2nd; Blake Peterson, from Wayne, who placed 3rd; Kole Westwood, from Piute, who placed 10th; Mark Tebbs, from Panguitch, who placed 13th; and Peter Baksis, from Escalante, who placed 14th.
The team line-up and scores were as follows:
- Monticello, 42
- Altamont, 85
- Panguitch, 94
- Escalante, 95
- Piute, 102
- Wayne, 110
- Whitehorse, 110
- Bryce Valley, 136.5
- Manila, 138
- Tintic, 157
More complete state cross country results can be found at DeseretNews.org.
– The Byway
Feature image caption: When Tabi won first place at the state cross country meet this year, Brooke, who had been in front of her all year, was the first to congratulate her. Courtesy of Becky Henrie.