COMMENTARY — I didn’t run track in high school (too slow) or compete in any field events (too lazy), but like much of America, I have always been a big fan of the Olympic Games and the track and field events every four years as our country’s top athletes compete for medals.

As I turned into a sports journalist, I’ve had the opportunity to cover track and field at the regional and state levels and it can be an amazing experience. It can also be dizzying. Many years ago (I believe it was 1993), I covered state track and field for the first time at BYU. All qualifiers (based on times and distances, not a set number of athletes) in all classifications meet at Brigham Young University’s nationally-acclaimed Clarence F. Robison Track Stadium.

Like clockwork, the facility moves the different preliminary and then final events through in amazingly efficient fashion, crowning literally hundreds of individual state champions in a two-day whirlwind. The nerve center, a war room-like office under the stands at Robison, buzzes with activity and is wired (or wireless) to start lines and finish lines and the press box and produces pages of information in eight-point font.

The coolest part about all of it is that every race, every event, every winner and loser has a story. Track and field, perhaps more than any other sport, produces the most incredible stories of personal triumph and will to survive. When one looks closer, it’s easy to find the kid who was bullied, the kid who had some horrific childhood disease, the young person who was told he could never succeed or some other beautiful story of individual hope and effort.

Region 9 is not short on those same stories and our southern Utah athletes continue their quest to make it to Robison Stadium this Thursday at the Snow Canyon Invitational. This is a big event with schools from around the state joining Region 9’s best in the officially state-sanctioned qualifier. Look for big performances from high jumper Chandler Swaney of Desert Hills, shot putters Blake Kvarfordt of Desert Hills and Joe Takau of Dixie, discus tossers Kvarfordt and Kazden Jolley of Hurricane, sprinters Brooklyn Shakespeare of Cedar, Melissa Kunz of Canyon View and Olivia Leavitt of Desert Hills (who is also a top hurdler), long jumper Abby Taylor of D-Hills and girls shot putters Marley Fakahua of Cedar and Liz Empey of Dixie.

Baseball

Desert Hills took a loss in baseball, but still has a game lead on Canyon View and two games on the rest of the region. The Thunder had their long (17 games) win streak snapped, but still are favored to win the region. But DH still has half its region schedule left and will face two of the region’s top pitchers over the next three weeks (Pine View’s Dakota Donovan and Snow Canyon’s Will Durante).

Meanwhile, the Falcons have just four games left and two of those are against winless Hurricane, though CV coach Jason Jacobsen cautioned that the Tigers are dangerous, saying Hurricane “always gives us trouble.”

The scary thing for the other four teams that still sit at .500 in region (Cedar, Dixie, Pine View and Snow Canyon) is that only two will make the playoffs (unless Canyon View or Desert Hills have a collapse). That means each week every inning, heck, every out, becomes huge.

Somehow I get the feeling this may come down to a play-in game the Tuesday after the season is over.

Here’s the schedule for the week (note, there are no games on Friday due to the Easter weekend school holiday):

Tuesday, April 15

BASEBALL
Dixie at Canyon View, 4 p.m.
Snow Canyon at Cedar, 4 p.m.
Hurricane at Desert Hills, 7 p.m.

BOYS SOCCER
Cedar at Canyon View, 4 p.m.
Hurricane at Dixie, 7 p.m.
Pine View at Snow Canyon, 7 p.m.

SOFTBALL
Cedar at Canyon View, 4 p.m.
Hurricane at Dixie, 4 p.m.
Snow Canyon at Pine View, 4 p.m.

Wednesday, April 16

BASEBALL
Canyon View at Dixie, 7 p.m.
Cedar at Snow Canyon, 7 p.m.
Desert Hills at Hurricane, 7 p.m.

BOYS SOCCER
Desert Hills at Cedar, 4 p.m.
Canyon View at Pine View, 7 p.m.
Snow Canyon at Hurricane, 7 p.m.

SOFTBALL
Canyon View at Pine View, 4 p.m.
Desert Hills at Cedar, 4 p.m.
Snow Canyon at Hurricane, 4 p.m.

Thursday, April 17

TRACK AND FIELD
Snow Canyon Invitational, 4 p.m.