Monticello boys earn cross country title, girls runner-up honors at state meet

By Marah Long
Contributing writer
On Tuesday, October 29, the Monticello High School Cross Country team attended the UHSAA State Championship at Sugarhouse Park in Salt Lake City.
Unlike the Rose Park course that the event has been held at for the last few years, Sugarhouse Park is a course designed to test the guts of each runner that steps on the line. Throughout the race, there are steep uphills, plummeting downhills, thick grass, and tight turns. It is certainly a worthy venue for a worthy competition.
Finishing only two points ahead of Panguitch High, the men of Monticello took the State Championship for the second year running. With back-to-back wins, they continue to cement their status as the 1A team to beat.
Leading the team to victory was the high school freshman Eli Carling. Eli came in 4th place, running a wildly fast time of 17 minutes and 56 seconds. Commenting on the state course, Eli said, “I like this course a lot. I do well on hills, so I like Sugar House. And I think it’s a lot more fun than Rose Park. It’s just I feel like there’s more people to cheer on everywhere”.
Running their last-ever race, second and third on the team were seniors Kaden Pehrson (placed 15th with a time of 18:17) and Aaron Gillette (placed 19th with a time of 18:28). Coming in fourth on the team to solidify their win was Kooper Nielson running a time of 18:29 and coming in 21st.
In addition to the top four were Charlie Welch, Alejandro Austin, and McKay Nielson, all underclassmen with a bright future ahead of them in the sport.
Only thirty minutes after the start of the men’s race, the women started with a bang. 15 teams showed up to run, but only three came to win. Vying for the top spot were Panguitch, Monticello, and Rich High School.
In a nail-biting finish, Panguitch took the gold with 28 points, the Lady Buckaroos took the silver with 37 points, and Rich was left in third place with 53 points.
Leading the Monticello girls into second place was senior Marah Long. Marah ran a time of 20:00, finishing in 3rd place. In her post-state interview, Marah was asked if this race would be her most memorable, “It’s about the hard work that goes into each race. I don’t know if there’s one race that stands out over the years. What stands out is the feeling that all of my teammates are working as hard as they possibly can. They all want it as much as I do, it’s a cool feeling”.
Next for Monticello came senior Lilli Burton, senior Ayla Carling, and freshman Allie Carling (placed 8th, 11th, and 15th).
Rounding out the group are senior Alexis Bailey, freshman Mikayla Gillette, Xymenah Alvarado, and the dedicated alternate Olivia Plemmons.
With six seniors leaving the team this year, Coach Hunt has nothing but high praise for his upperclassmen.
“They’re fantastic, they’re good kids, they’re smart, they work hard. These seniors, I’ve just grown with them over the years and I’ve learned a lot from them. I know that sounds cliche, but It’s not meant to be. I look at the things that they’ve taught me about perseverance and overcoming hardships. It’s helped make me a better person”.
Marah Long spoke for the team, thanking Coach Hunt for helping them achieve their goals and grow as individuals. “He’s been our biggest supporter. We love him. We (seniors) are going to be sad to leave and we’ll miss our whole team and our coaches”
This year the Monticello Cross Country team had some extra help that became essential in their successes throughout the season. Bailey Knecht, a former MHS runner jumped into the beginning of the season and according to Lilli Burton, changed the whole game. “She came in, and just changed the whole atmosphere for us mentally and physically. Like, she worked us harder, but she also taught us more mental strength and I think that was very important for this year.”
The MHS Cross Country program will never forget Bailey for the passion and dedication that she brought to the team. The team didn’t only gain a coach, they gained a friend.
There is no doubt that these seniors have worked hard over the years. On the boy’s team, there’s never been a defined leader, Kaden Pehrson agrees the boys have always run together and helped each other along the way.
“It’s just been really fun to run throughout freshman all the way to senior year having different roles on the team as a contributor. It’s fun seeing upperclassmen graduate and still being able to hold the team together. I still do think that we’re going to have a pretty good team next year; Aaron and I will be gone but these other four or five still got it. They got a good chance”.
With the top four for the boys changing week to week, Aaron Gillette says it pushed the team to overcome adversity, and no matter what, never give up.
“I think that it means that you can’t just take what you have for granted. You have to keep working every day and you have to keep working harder and harder. You can’t just sit where you are and accept that, oh, you’re going to be the fastest”.
Kooper Nielson notes that one of the best things about Cross Country meets, and especially as State, is the hundreds of dedicated fans who show up to cheer on the athletes.
“It’s always nice to see people with familiar faces just to see them cheering you on. It’s very fun because a lot of the races down here (are not always well attended) but state was just nice to see like, oh, they’re here to support us and have a familiar face to cheer us on.”
The Buckaroo fans who cheered at the state meet were treated with the 2nd straight state championship for the boys, and the 13th overall for the program.
With an equally strong tradition, the Monticello girls program wrapped up their season and the running careers of four seniors.
The seniors earned their second trophy at the state meet.
Ayla Carling reflected on their runner-up trophy in 2022 earned by the four runners from the class of 2025. The circumstances of that year made it Carling’s favorite.
“We lost a senior the year before so it was just four sophomores and we went into state hoping for a second place. We were really close to second. We were ranked third. and we came in and we won second and we were so happy and it was like the most awesome thing ever. Even though it wasn’t first it was just such a great victory and it was my favorite memory is taking home that trophy”.
Long, Burton, and Ayla Carling have all earned top-10 finishes at the state meet over their careers. Burton says the girls’ friendly-competitive nature helped them achieve great results.
“We’ve always just pushed each other because I feel like that helps our motivation a little bit. Having a teammate there with you is always a good push through the race.”
Cross-country running is often a family affair, in recent history the Longs, and Gillettes have had siblings run together. This year the Carling family was celebrated with all three siblings earning top-15 finishes at state.
Freshman Allie Carling says she’s enjoyed running with her siblings.
“I think it’s been really cool running with my family, especially my sister since it’s her senior year and I love to see how much she can do and she supports me in every way. It’s really cool.”
Though Alexis Bailey hasn’t been the fastest runner on the team, she has arguably the biggest heart and the most determination of anyone on the team. As the most-improved runner in the program making up almost 10 minutes of improvement from 8th grade to senior year, there is nothing Alexis can’t do.
“My first year ever doing cross country was my eighth grade. My PR, my eighth-grade year was 32 minutes in 3 miles, which is not very good at all. My PR this year is a 22, which is more than 10 minutes improvement. That’s the growth that I’ve seen for myself”.
That is the beauty of the sport of Cross Country, it doesn’t necessarily take skill to be great. It takes the guts to put in the work day after day.

A runners journal:
by Marah Long
If there is one thing that I will remember about State Cross Country 2024, it is that it was colder and wetter than a Monticello spring.
During the hours before the race, every runner on the course felt the cold and with it an added pressure to an already daunting race. Every runner, except my fearless team.
We had trained in worse conditions than these and we had run harder courses with our eyes closed. So as we walked the course, we walked with confidence.
We knew exactly how to run the hills, the turns, and the straights. This is exactly what we had trained for: Twenty minutes of raw speed, power, and guts. However, that didn’t mean we could take it easy.
Every one of us would have to run faster than our legs could take us. We had to run with our hearts, and that is exactly what we did.
After years, then months, then hours of waiting, the sound of a gun signaled the beginning of the race that could determine the success of the last 5 years of training. This was the moment to end them all.
I spent the first 1.75 miles shoulder-to-shoulder with a sophomore from Panguitch. I could feel her stride and her breath as we tore down the course. There were moments when I fell behind and had to consider letting her go, then there were moments when she fell behind and I felt the anxiety of not knowing where she was. But despite the steep competition, each of us would be happy for the winner of our battle.
At the 2-mile mark, I left her and gritted my teeth against my exhaustion and my fear. At that point, it was only one more lap around the pond and then 400 meters to the finish line. As I came around the back side of the pond I looked up to see a blue jersey getting closer and closer; Or rather, I was getting closer. With as much a burst of speed as I dared I passed her, terrified of what lay ahead.
My feet, my head, and my heart were pounding in rhythm, desperate for the relief that would come with the finish line, desperate to make my teammates, my coaches, and my family proud.
With only 400 meters to go, there was not a quiet moment to be had. I heard my friends, teammates, family, and strangers alike screaming my name with volume and emotion that only a runner can understand.
Though the crowd and my body were screaming, my mind was quiet. And from my quiet mind came one simple thought: “Let's go”.
At the 100-meter mark, I realized that Whitehorse’s top runner was only a couple of paces ahead of me. So with one last leap of faith, I went for it. I lengthened my stride and quickened my step.
After a couple of seconds, we were even, then, I was ahead. I was flying down the chute towards the end of the race, hardly believing what I had just done. Only a few steps from the line I let out a wild, desperate scream.
I can’t say I know exactly where it came from, only that it was the one sound that could’ve described my emotions at that essential moment. I had just finished in front of the girl who I thought was impossible to beat, I felt the pain of something I had lost but gained in the same stride, and I had just run my last cross-country race-ever.
After coming to a bit I was swarmed with the people I had just run for. I cried with my mom and laughed with my friends. I hugged my competitors and teammates while we all felt the intense drama of what we had just accomplished.
That’s the good thing about Cross Country, no matter what, you are never alone.