San Juan track and field team competes at Farm Bureau Invitational in Price

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School track and field team traveled to Price for their second meet of the season on Saturday, March 18. The Farm Bureau Invitational, hosted by Carbon High School, featured 15 teams.
The boys stole the show for the Broncos with Brigham Nielson and Hudson Whatcott scoring all 16 points for the team.
Whatcott got an impressive six-foot high jump to take second in that event, scoring eight points. Nielson was fourth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 44.35, scoring five points.
He also finished sixth in the 110 hurdles in 17.82, scoring three points for San Juan. In addition, Zack Conway finished in the top ten in the 200-meter race, coming home ninth in 24.52.
Top finishes among the girls included a 24th-place performance by Chloe Palmer in the 400 meter with a time of 1:16.25. Sierra Richmond finished 31st in that race, coming home five seconds later in 1:21.03.
In the girls high jump freshman Madi Adams cleared four feet, two inches to tie for 25th place. And Ella Davis got 32nd in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing in 23.58.
Following the meet in Price third-year San Juan Head Coach Samantha Pemberton expressed several thoughts about her team. Here’s what she had to say:
“This year we have a pretty young team which makes us pretty excited. We have some kids we are really looking forward to helping with their development and skills. And we have some returning athletes we are excited about.
“Edward Lyman (Junior, Captain) is our long-distance runner and placed at state last year. He is a talented kid and actually spends his time between track and soccer. Brigham Nielson (Junior, Captain) is an outstanding hurdler and has already qualified for BYU and State.
“Leah Castellon (Senior, Captain) is also a hurdler, has hit her qualifying marks this year, and is also tipping her toes in jumping this year. Junior Zack Conway has only been to one meet so far this year and has also qualified for BYU and State. He is in some competitive events (100m, 200m, Shot and 4x1) so we hope he can do well at State this year.
“We have many more talented athletes on the team, but the last one I’ll single out is junior Hudson Whatcott. Hudson put a lot of time in during the offseason and it paid off because he also qualified for State in both the high and long jump.
“As always we have a very competitive region. Kanab especially will be the toughest team to compete against. Our goal as a coaching staff is to double the number of athletes we took to State last year. I believe with the amount of talent we have that is completely possible.”
Speaking of her coaching staff Pemberton said, “Andrea Nielson has been in the program a lot longer than me. This year she has stepped up as the boys head coach.
“She is awesome! She is a very talented hurdler coach and she has brought a new fire to the program that it needed. I am looking forward to working right beside her this year.
“We have brought on two new coaches this year. Rachel Barton is helping with sprints and hurdles and Regan Richmond is helping with sprints and relays.
“Andrea and I are very grateful for our coaching staff and all the hard work and heart they put into the program.”
It’s a busy week for the Broncos. Conditions permitting, they’ll host the San Juan County Championship on Wednesday, March 29 with Monticello, Monument Valley, and Whitehorse in attendance.
Grand County is sneaking into the event also, but I’m pretty sure they’re not eligible to win the county title. The Broncos will close out the week with a trip to Salina to compete at North Sevier High School on Saturday, April 1