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The Springville Boys Cross Country team just finished their most successful season in school history earning a State Championship title and 5th place at Nationals.
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The athletes earned the first XC State Championship title in school history. Four of the boys on the team placed in the top 10 at the state meet and Grant Gardner was the State Runner-Up, taking 2nd place overall.
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The team went on to take 2nd place at the Nike Southwest Region meet that includes teams from New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Springville runner Brandon Garnica took 4th place.
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Springville topped off the winning season with a 5th place finish at Nike Nationals. Brandon Garnica placed 20th, bringing home All American honors.
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Springville coach Samantha Smith said, “Honestly, I think the biggest thing that helped them this season is that they believed they could do great things, because of this belief they were able to see the vision and see what was required to get them to where they wanted to be. They sacrificed the small things that may not seem to matter to others in order to make the big things possible.”
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Runner Caleb Garnica said, “We started focusing on a lot of things like team unity, eating right, sleeping right, and training right. We all sacrificed a lot to get where we are and that’s a main difference from last year.”
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Unity and focus were elements that many of the athletes credited for their success.
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“This year we really came together as a team and kept each other accountable. We were all cheering for each other and everyone had a goal to help the team. Everyone was focused on getting better and working harder every day, and eventually, it started paying off. There were no excuses, so we had no limits,” said Grant Gardner.
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Team members gave their all in a tough season. “Taking state for the first time in Springville High history — knowing before the state meet that we could go down in the books as possibly the best team Springville High has ever had — that made me want to run even faster than before. What made us successful was the team unity we shared. Everyone supported each other through runs and workouts. We all had goals that would benefit the team. We were all focused on improvements for ourselves and each other. At the end, all the hard work each of us had put into this season paid off. We all finished on empty,” said Brandon Garnica.
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Some of the team’s other accomplishments include:
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1st place at Grass Relays Invite with 4 boys in the top 15.
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1st place at Pre Region with 5 boys in the top 10.
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1st place at the Murray Invite with 5 boys in the top 15 and Brandon Garnica winning.
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2nd place at the BYU Invite with 3 boys in the top 20 and Grant Gardner and Brandon Garnica taking 3rd and 4th respectively.
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2nd place at the Bob Firman Invite with 3 boys in the top 16.
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1st at UHSAA Regionals with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 11th place with Grant Gardner as Region Champion.
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