Tommy Sheeran wins long jump as Buckaroos and Broncos get strong showings at BYU Invite

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The annual BYU Invitational is the longest-running and most prestigious track and field invitational in the Intermountain West. This past Thursday through Saturday, May 4-6 nearly 3,200 athletes competed in the 113th running of the event.
One Monticello High School athlete stood out from the rest of the competitors who made the trip from San Juan County to Provo. Tommy Sheeran won the long jump with a jump of 21 feet, ten-and-a-quarter inches.
Sheeran out-jumped all 319 of his long jump competitors at BYU in all six Utah classifications along with athletes from several schools in Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and Alaska.
He beat his nearest division challenger by almost five inches and it was a very impressive performance considering the soggy, cold conditions at the Clarence Robinson Track.
The win gave the Buckaroos ten points at the event and the boys team finished in a tie for 18th place. Though no other Monticello athletes finished in the points, they did muster several top-20 performances.
Berlynn Black tied for ninth in the girls high jump, clearing the bar at four feet, 11 inches. Nial Reay finished 11th in the boys discus with a throw of 130-04.50.
The boys sprint medley team of Robert Morrison, Tavon Black, Soren Welch, and Jesse Pettit came across the line in 4:07.38 to finish 16th.
And the girls sprint medley team of Cami Dowell, Makenna Peterson, Lilli Burton, and Marah Long got 20th in 4:57.36.
For San Juan High School Magnum Nielson led the way with a fifth-place throw in the javelin at 157-09.75, scoring the only four points for the Broncos on the weekend. The team got top-20 performances in seven events, narrowly missing points in two.
Leah Castellon finished ninth in the girls 100-meter hurdles in 16.89, missing the final point-scoring position by just 16 hundredths of a second.
Bronco teammates Tripp Palmer and Hudson Whatcott tied each other for 11th in the boys high jump. Their equal jumps of 5-11.75 were also one position outside the points due to ties among the top ten.
The boys 4x100 relay team of Zack Conway, Tayden Mark, Brigham Nielson, and Josh Nielson came home 11th in 45.20, just three seconds behind the winning team.
Tayden Mark, Brigham Nielson, Lynnox Benn, and Edward Lyman combined to finish 12th in the 4x400 relay race with their time of 3:39.64.
The boys sprint medley relay team of Tyler Pehrson, Josh Nielson, Josiah LaPalmer, and Lynnox Benn scored a time of 4:06.09 to finish 15th.
The girls 4x400 team of Leah Castellon, Chloe Palmer, Keezie Flannery, and Addi Helquist crossed the line in 17th with a time of 4:30.36. And Jared Burke hurled the javelin 137 feet even in a 20th-place performance for San Juan.
With the BYU Invite in the books, it’s postseason time for all the high school track and field teams in the county. San Juan competed in the Region 19 Championship at Southern Utah University on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 9-10 with results coming after the print deadline.
Monticello hosted the Region 23 Championship with Monument Valley, Navajo Mountain, and Whitehorse in town on Wednesday, May 10, also too late for our print deadline. Look for results on those events in the May 17 issue of the paper.
And 2023 Utah State track and field championships are right on the heels of region title meets. The teams will all be headed back to BYU for those May 18-20.

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