Murray Invite is one of the biggest cross country races within the state of Utah. Schools from all over the state come to compete in the race of their life. Competing in a 2.95 mile course, seeing who can get the fastest time. Excitement, fear, adrenaline, millions of mixed emotions are filled within these competitors as they step up to the line waiting for the gun to fire.

The Davis High School cross country team has high hopes as they raced their 3rd race of the season. The 1st race of the meet was boys varsity @ 3pm. Followed by the girls varsity race @ 3.20pm. The boys ran a very good race, placing 2nd overall. Runners up to Skyridge high. Followed by the varsity girls. They also had a very good race. Placing 4th, behind Springville. Ellie Lungreen had a very good race. Placing 3rd overall. Her and a 2nd place Lone Peak girl were running neck and neck, and seconds before crossing the finish line, lone peak cut her off, almost leading her off of the finish line. Unfortunately the Lone Peak runner beat Ellie, however she still had a phenomenal race with a time of 17:50.2. Out of the boys Jacob Halverson was Davis #1 runner, placing 13th overall. He also had a very good race with a time of 15:33 and every Davis boy behind him was within the top 35 competitors.

Coach Timothy chose the spotlights of the week for having a really good race, that included: Nate Iverson, Hunter Kitchen, Abi Waddoups, and Janelle Burke. Each of them had really awesome races, exceeding their limits.

Overall the Murray Invite was a successful race for most. Many runners accomplished incredible things. Many people reported it being very hot, the heat was very intense, making it harder to race, although our darts managed to push through this obstacle and perform to the best of their abilities. Whitney Walpole, a sophomore on the team, raced her 1st varsity race. She said, “The race was alright, it was extremely aggressive, you tend to get cut off, and shoved a lot, especially in the beginning of the race, because right after you start, the course narrows in and you have to turn a sharp corner, which can cut a lot of runners off. The competition was really good, very fast runners from all over Utah came to compete.”

This race was really good for our team, great preparation for future meets to come, particularly state which is in just over a month. It will be exciting to see how the team does these next couple of weeks. Hopefully we will be ready for the state competition when it comes.