Ogden’s distance star, hardly four days removed from a top-5  finish at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic in Irvine, California, completed her City-County threepeat on Wednesday at the Weber County Fairgrounds.

Cutting nearly 11 seconds off last year’s win, Barton recorded a course-best time of 17:46.11, roughly 2 minutes ahead of teammate and individual runner-up Clara Geddes (19:41.70), as five different Tigers landed in the top 15.

McKell Jensen (3rd, 19:53:50) and Laney Tolman (4th, 20:02.08) led first-place Weber, jumping ahead of Ogden in the team tally with six girls finishing among the top 30 when the final results were counted.

Spanning several decades, the City-County course routinely changes its layout, and this fall was no exception. The reconstructed map took advantage of the location’s unpredictably hilly terrain, Barton said, and included multiple trips around the Weber County Softball Complex.

“It was a really hard course,” Barton said. “They changed it up this year; I feel like there are more hills this year… Going around the fence four times this year — on the back side of the fence — that was a little bit hard because the first time coming around, I already felt like dying that I had to do that again, so that was a little bit discouraging.”

Barton, last year’s 3A state runner-up, is one of Northern Utah’s names to watch on the recruiting trail with recent in-state visits to BYU, Utah, Utah State, Weber State and more. Last spring at state track, Barton, then a junior, won the 3A 3,200 meters and finished second in the 1,600 meters in the annual meet at BYU.

Her running roots are close to home, too. Barton’s mother, Alydia Barton, competed in track and field at Weber State during the late 1980s and led Ogden High School to five cross country state titles and another six individual titles. She’d then instruct 20 different track and field state champions from 2006 to 2014.

The Ogden native told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday that she plans to finalize her college plans in three weeks (sometime in mid-October).

“I think the hard part is doing that and school,” Avery Barton said of the recruiting process. “I’m taking a lot harder classes this year, and then juggling my visits plus racing, that’s been the only hard part. But I’ve actually been really loving the racing and visiting the schools.”

Luckily, running isn’t the hard part of the equation, she said. Barton likes her team’s chances at state as her final cross country season comes to its final marks. The state championships, scheduled for Oct. 27-28 at Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City, sit just over the rise.

“I love our odds,” Barton said. “I think our team has grown so much this year. Especially on the lower scale, so I think we’re going to have a really great team into the next few years and we’ll have a lot better odds than we did last year.”

For complete City-County results, visit sporttrax.com and search for “City County.”

GIRLS CITY-COUNTY INDIVIDUAL TOP 25

1. Avery Barton, Ogden, 17:46.11

2. Clara Geddes, Ogden, 19:41.70

3. McKell Jensen, Weber, 19:53.50

4. Laney Tolman, Weber, 20:02.08

5. Alexis Cox, Morgan, 20:10.94

6. Kara Richards, Weber, 20:17.39

7. Tenaya Norton, Fremont, 20:29.13

8. Lena Coombs, West Field, 20:34.25

9. Claire Hall, Fremont, 20:38.20

10. Lucy Minnoch, Weber, 21:16.44

11. Emery Hancey, Fremont, 21:16.62

12. Lucia Bute, Ogden, 21:30.03

13. Shay Ekstrom, Ogden, 21:30.05

14. Misty West, Morgan, 21:33.03

15. Ally Stark, Ogden, 21:36.60

16. Georgia Smith, Ogden, 21:38.25

17. Molly Ekstrom, Ogden, 21:41.09

18. Harriet Poulson, Fremont, 21:48.47

19. Taylee Jensen, Weber, 21:54.25

20. Taylie Allen, West Field, 22:04.39

21. Lizzy Anderson, Fremont, 22:42.35

22. London Shaw, West Field, 22:55.08

23. Bryleigh Nelson, West Field, 23:03.00

24. Gracie Butler, Ben Lomond, 23:08.66

25. Sophie Eastman, West Field, 23:11.02

Connect with Standard-Examiner sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.