Every year in mid-May, the Utah track and field community descends on Provo for a crazy two days at BYU for the state tournament.

But after spending hours with the participants over the last couple of days, I find it almost a pity that the event is done so quickly.

Track has more total kids involved than any other high school sport with the possible exception of football.

With that level of involvement, there are dozens of tales even just from Utah Valley teenagers that will never get the publicity they probably deserve because of the lack of time and space.

Consider some of the following storylines that each could easily be an article by itself:

• The Ogden Standard-Examiner photographer that got hit with the javelin became big news Saturday after the accident delayed the meet for half an hour.

The real story however, is about Provo junior Anthony Miles, the athlete who hurled the fateful javelin to a personal-best distance, only to have it turn into a nightmare when it hit someone that wasn't supposed to be there.

There was nothing Miles could've done but that didn't stop it from affecting him. Meet officials figured out how far the javelin would've flown and measured the distance, which was over 170 feet and far better than anyone else threw in the 4A javelin competition.

But the Provo junior managed to make the distance a moot point. He came back after a bad throw to beat his own distance by four inches and won the event without any controversy.

"I'm never going to forget it," Miles said. "I don't think anyone who saw it will forget it. I'm just glad he (the photographer) was all right."

• Mountain View senior Travis Fuller couldn't have asked for much more over the past two days.

He started out the state meet with a win in the 1,600-meters, then left immediately to relax and prepare to join the Bruin boys soccer team for it's 4A quarterfinal match against Cottonwood that afternoon.

After Mountain View squeeked out the win in a shootout to advance to the semifinals, Fuller returned to the track on Saturday to get the top spot in the 3,200-meters and the 800-meters.

"These days have been the best and worst ever," he said. "I've been trying to thrive on the excitement, feed off it. It's been stressful but it's been more fun and rewarding than you can imagine."

• Lone Peak senior Lacey Cramer had a 1,600-meter win on Friday but in the 800-meters on Saturday, she had to face her biggest challenge.

Spanish Fork's Nachelle Stewart had always found ways to get the upper hand, including edging out Cramer at the finish line at the state meet in 2007.

As she rounded the curve toward the home stretch, she and Stewart were running stride for stride.

"I knew I had to take it there," she said. "I just wanted to get past her."

The Knight runner found an extra reservoir of energy to blast down the straightaway, pulling away for the win and a new state-record time of 2:09.26.

"That's the first time I've ever beaten her," Cramer said. "It feels so good to get first after years of being second."

And those are just three examples.

There's also Spanish Fork head coach Dave Boyack celebrating his birthday a day late by being driven through town on fire trucks in honor of the state title.

And what about Mountain View junior Anjie Lines who had never competed in the long jump before the Region 7 tournament, only to win the event and then place third at state.

Then there's Orem senior Landon Lloyd who came into the 4A boys long jump seeded 12th, only to jump 21 feet, 7.75 inches and take second, helping his team to a second-place finish.

The list goes on and on, from kids doing more than expected to others excelling in the shadows to help the team do better.

They are the lost stories of state track, the ones that will never be written in newspapers.

But they will be remembered -- and treasured -- by those who competed at the state track tournament.

• Jared Lloyd can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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