Another win for San Juan girls

by Kim Hiatt

The San Juan High School cross country team traveled to Monroe on September 3 to check out the competition of four other Region 12 teams. The view turned out to be pretty sweet. 

San Juan girls placed first as a team by sweeping the top five places.  Brielle Francom was first in 21:28, followed by Danielle Wilson (22:00), Katie Hiatt (22:10), Rylee Lyman (22:30) and Michelle Keith (22:56). 

“In my eleven years coaching girls cross country at San Juan, I’ve never had a team sweep the top five positions at a race before,” said coach Kimberly Hiatt.  The only Region 12 team missing from the race is Grand and San Juan beat them two weeks ago at the Red Rock Invitational. 

“Our chances of taking the region title look fairly good right now.  The girls just need to stay healthy, injury-free and keep working on their speed. We’ll see what happens at the Region Championships in Moab October 14.”

For the San Juan boys, Taylor Francom (18:04) and Jade Grover (18:09) ran well, securing a seventh and eighth place finish, respectively.  The boys competition in Region 12 is stiff, with teams from Richfield and North Sevier who have taken top spots at the State Championships for years now. 

Francom barely missed qualifying for State last year, (the top three teams and top 10 individual runners go to State) but this year his hard work and dedication have all but secured him a spot.  

Freshman Jade Grover, who runs at Francom’s heels, should place well enough to make it to state, too. 

“All the boys ran well today.  If the rest of the boys step it up in the next few weeks, there’s a real possibility the whole team can make it to State,” said coach Steve Hiatt.

This week, the teams travel once again to Moab on Wednesday, where they will race against the Region 12 teams, in addition to other 3A and 1A teams at 4 p.m. at the Moab Golf course. 

On Friday, they race in Aztec, NM at 4 p.m. at the Aztec motor cross.