North Sanpete freshman places third in cross-country 3A state tournament

By Matt Harris

Staff writer

10-29-2020

MIDWAY—Most of the time, high school sports teams rely on senior power to succeed.

Sometimes, however, the future doesn’t wait long to become the present.

North Sanpete freshman Mari Briggs looked like the next big thing last week for Sanpete County’s local cross-country teams as she placed third individually in the 3A girls’ state championship race in Soldier Hollow, the highest finish of a North Sanpete runner in over 10 years. Her effort propelled North Sanpete girls’ cross-country to a second-place team finish behind Morgan.

Briggs finished the 5,000 meter event with a time of 21:40.3, which was over a minute and a half behind the two seniors from Grand County and Morgan vying for first place.

North Sanpete finished as a team with 78 points, second to Morgan, who finished with 49 points. The finish was made more impressive by the fact that the Lady Hawks raced with seven runners, of whom there was only one junior and no seniors.

Following the Lady Hawks, the Manti girls’ cross-country team came away with a solid performance, finishing fourth in team standings with 90 points. Junior Fiel Woods led the seven Lady Templars with a time of 21.43.8, just 3.5 seconds behind Briggs.

For both the Hawks and the Templars, the boys’ teams struggled in their team finish. Manti took 7th, while North Sanpete took 8th. Senior Gage Cox led the Hawks with a time of 19:09.6, enough for 21st place, while Manti junior Josiah Carter led the Templars with a 27th-place finish and a time of 19:20.7.

In the week prior to this race, the 2A state championship took place in Cedar City. While neither Gunnison Valley nor Wasatch Academy qualified a team for state this year, Wasatch Academy senior Christopher Korir finished second individually in state as the lone representative for the Tigers, posting a time in the 3-mile event of 15:54.1.