The period before spring break is often a slow one for the Miners track and field team.
Park City is looking to improve their times and qualify athletes for state, though that is interrupted by the latest spring break of any Utah high school.
The Miners capped off a strong start to the season Saturday in the Timpanogos Alpha Invitational. Park City finished in 17th place, qualifying their girl’s 4×800 relay team for state.
At Timpanogos, the Miners also kept their athletes competition ready and entered in several new events, in which they excelled. Mallory Carter ran the second-best time of any 4A athlete in the 400m: 56.61, and Eli Warner set the Park City long jump record: 22 feet and a half inch.
“We went into the Timpanogos meet telling the kids to trust the process,” Miners Head Coach Dave Yocum said. “It was kind of a mental break in some respects, and we were pleasantly surprised.”
Park City wasn’t focused on winning races or setting personal records but on qualifying the 4x800m relay teams and keeping athletes engaged. The boy’s 4x800m relay team’s time of 8:55.4 on Saturday was strong but not a state-qualifying time.
“They had a good meet,” Yocum said. “A lot of energy from our kids, as far as supporting each other. … That was pretty exciting and fun to watch.”
The Miners will take their boy’s 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams to the Arcadia Invitational this week in Arcadia, California. The invitational is one of the premier high school meets in the world, often producing Olympians. 2024 Paris Games 4x400m relay gold medalist Quincy Wilson, 18, will be competing at Arcadia.
“It was by far the most difficult Arcadia Invitational to get into,” Yocum said. “When our kids do that and go up against the best of the best, they go into the later meets knowing that they can compete with anybody and they don’t get starstruck going to the state meet.”
Yocum said the invitational also highlights the level of competition that Park City athletes need to reach to continue track and field in college if they want.
The Miners girl’s 4x100m relay team also qualified for the invitational but will not attend.
After the invitational and spring break, Park City hopes to be healthy and keep improving. Yocum tabbed Sam LaBrin, Oliver Timpson and James McKenzie as athletes who will hopefully swiftly qualify for state in the 800m, 300m hurdles and 110m hurdles, respectively, after spring break.
“We’ve got kids that are on the brink of qualifying for state automatically,” Yocum said. “They’re still ranked well enough that they would go in those events, but we’re trying to get them auto-qualified so they don’t have to worry about it.”
The Miners will compete in the Davis Invitational and SkyHawk Invite on April 18, and the Andy Jacobs Memorial Invitational (Tiger Trials) on April 25. The state meet is May 14 to 16 at BYU.
The last Park City girl’s state title came in 2014, and the last boy’s title, 1992.