SALT LAKE CITY -- While Mountain View dominated the state 4-A team races in Wednesday's cross country championships, Box Elder High's Kelsey Braithwaite won the girls race and the underdog boys Bonneville team proved it's ready to run with the big dogs by placing a surprising second.
A year ago, Braithwaite was tired. She suffered from anemia and other nagging injuries, and the promising runner who had placed seventh and fifth as a freshman and sophomore, posted a DNF at the 2010 championships at Sugarhouse Park. This year, despite running the fastest girls time of the day -- 17 minutes, 36 seconds -- and winning the 4-A girls race, Braithwaite wasn't tired at all.
She was beaming.
"I've been running tons of miles a week," said Braithwaite, "I'm just so happy."
Braithwaite took the lead in the race once she was up the first hill and stretched the lead until she was 24 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, Mountain View's Ashleigh Warner, who was second in 18:02.
"I came into the race pretty confident," said Braithwaite. "I wanted to run my own race."
Braithwaite hasn't taken a day off of running since eighth grade and logs 85-90 miles a week.
"I have always loved running," she said. "For me it's not all about winning. I just love running more than anything."
"She's really dedicated herself to running," said Box Elder coach Wayne McConkie. "That was a remarkable performance. If you're going to run your fastest time it's better to do it at state."
In the boys race, after not even qualifying for the state championships last year, the Bonneville High boys squad had some work to do, and that work came together for them in the form of a second place trophy this year.
They scored 83 points behind Mountain View's 66.
"We came a long way this past year," said Bonneville's Colby Wayment. Wayment was Bonneville's second runner, placing 16th overall with a time of 16:21.
Abe Weeks was Bonneville's first runner, placing 12th overall in 16:16. Also scoring for Bonneville was Colby Myers in 19th (16:24), Cade Perry in 22nd (16:29), and Andy Penman in 23rd (16:31).
"My boys dared to dream big and did the work and as a coach you can't ask for more than they did," said Bonneville co-coach Debbie Perry. Her husband Guy and she started coach the program this year.
"They knew they were starting at the bottom and they had the courage to run and to run in the front. This is a new era for Bonneville distance running," said Debbie.
Sky View's Conner Mantz, Logan's Jerrell Mock and Box Elder's Adam Hendrickson ran 2-3-4 in the tight medalist race as Region 5 runnners grabbed plenty of hardware.
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