Only four seconds kept Stansbury High School junior Tyson Lambert from winning the Region 6 boys varsity cross-country crown Wednesday afternoon. It was a close race and even though he came in second with a time of 15:38, behind Bountiful’s Clark Taylor, the two pushed each other and earned respect.

“Tyson is an amazing kid whose work ethic is awesome,” said SHS boys cross-country coach Randy Quarez. “He ran an incredible race. He earned high respect from the Bountiful kid who beat him. He [Taylor] said that Tyson pushed him to his limit.”

SHS girls coach Steve Allen said Lambert did what he needed to in order to do well.

“For any runner, it can get overwhelming and you can get nervous,” Allen said. “We told him to run strong the first mile with the pack and then run his race and that’s exactly what he did. The last mile was really awesome to watch him and the Bountiful kid duel it out. Tyson gave it everything he had.”

The meet didn’t turn out so well for some of the teams as neither the Tooele boys nor girls qualified for the state meet as a team nor did the Stansbury girls. However, Stansbury’s Michelle Meredith placed fifth overall at 20:05 while Tooele’s Amy Shield came in 10th at 20:41 to qualify individually for the state meet.

With Stansbury as a first-year school, Allen made a few observations as Stansbury principal Kendall Topham announced the top finishers at the meet.

“Michelle Meredith for the girls is the first girl to qualify for a state event at Stansbury,” Allen said. “And our boys team is the very first team in the school to qualify for a state event.”

The Stansbury boys team placed fourth giving them a birth in the state meet held Oct. 21 at Sugarhouse Park. Likewise, Tooele senior Colter Rockwell took fourth overall at 16:04 to earn a spot in the state meet.

In Region 6, the top four teams with the lowest scores and the top 10 finishers automatically qualify for state. Stansbury girls placed fifth with 108 points, just missing out on that fourth place spot — taken by Bountiful — by 10 points. The THS girls took sixth with 123 points.

The Stansbury boys came in with a 92 point fourth-place finish with Tooele taking fifth with 138 points.

“With Tyson being up in front it’s harder for the gap with runners two through seven,” Allen said of the SHS boys. “They had an excellent gap as they all ran together as a team.”

Although only one team qualified, many runners earned their personal best times while others had difficulty with the course.

“We coaches are very proud of our team,” Quarez said. “So many great things happened. A lot of people PRed and the [Stansbury] boys JV team took second.”

Many of the top placing performances of the meet came from the JV race. For the girls, Stansbury had four girls place in the top 10 with Danelle Pearson taking second at 23:05. Kaylene Palmer for Tooele wasn’t far behind with a fourth-place finish of 23:32. Stansbury’s Jenny Palmer (23:40), Amara Christopherson (24:16) and Kristina Sellers (24:22) rounded out the top Stansbury finishers.

For the boys JV, SHS had six finishers in the top 15 with Zach Cooper (18:24.2) and Landon Barnes (18:24.8) taking seventh and eighth respectively.

Of the top seven boys runners from Stansbury, none are seniors, which means the coaches have high hopes for next year’s season.

Luke Jones was the second highest finisher for SHS in 18th place at 17:26. Tooele’s Bryce Nieberger was right behind him in 19th at 17:27.4 while SHS sophomore Greg Atkin took 20th at 17:27.6. Stansbury’s David Farley (17:48), Austin Slade (17:57) and Kaylen Vickers (17:58) took 25th, 27th and 28th respectively.

On the girls side, Stansbury senior Micall Pomeroy finished 14th at 21:30 while Tooele running duo Makayla Adams (21:50) and Amanda Palmer (21:58) finished in at 18th and 19th. Browyn Douglas (22:03) for Stansbury finished 22nd, while Lexi Smith came in 31st at 22:35.

Stansbury and Tooele have been in building and rebuilding years with Stansbury being a first-year school and Tooele losing some of its runners.

“There was great sportsmanship by our kids, they supported everyone,” Quarez said. “We had a lot of comments from other schools and coaches about how we cheered others on — and how big we are (79 total runners). I am extremely proud to be part of this inaugural season of cross country at Stansbury High School.”

Seniors Meredith and Shields are the only female runners from Stansbury and Tooele finishing up their high school running careers at the state meet. Seniors on the SHS cross country team are: Micall Pomeroy, Lexi Smith, Jessica Aure, Amara Christopherson, Nicole Storey, Myranda Shumway, Jentry Principe, Stephanie Weber, Kim Topham, Logan Wanlass, Nic Siniscalchi, Bruce Rosengren, Gregg Ward and Zach Ward. Seniors for Tooele High School are: Amanda Palmer, Krysta Zeller, Colter Rockwell (who will also be running in the state meet), Jaret Wilson, Nelson Fish, Micah Robbins and Dalton Ryals.

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com