It’s a clean sweep for Malad as the Dragon boys and girls teams earn 3A state titles

MALAD – For this year’s East Idaho Sports Cross Country Team of the Year we’ll be doing a double-dip for the boys and girls honors.

It was a clean sweep at the 3A state championships this year as Malad won the boys and girls teams titles and even crowned an individual champion as Boston Burbidge claimed the boys title.

Burbidge finished with a personal-best time of 15:18.6 and was followed by Jace Nalder in third, Braun Nalder in seventh, Levi Angell in 11th and Dawson Beutler in 27th.

That proved enough to hold off defending champion Ririe, followed by North Fremont and Soda Springs.

On the girls side, Malad also held off defending champion Ririe with 51 points to the Bulldogs’ 62.

The Dragons finished with five runners in the top 14, led by sophomore Aezlyn Summers with a PR of 19:12.4.

Kaycee Venable (11th), Ellie Angell (12th), Brielle Bastian (14th) and Kallee Talbot (16th) rounded out the Malad placers.

According to Marlowe Hereford at Idahosports.com, it was the first program sweep for Malad. It was the first boys title since 1991 and first girls state title since 2001.

Overall, it was strong state meet this year at Lewiston, as Jaycee Jensen helped lead the Idaho Falls girls to a 5A team title, while Skyline won another 5A boys title.

The Rockland boys finished second in the 2A race, and the Highland boys were second in a strong 6A field.

Sugar-Salem won the 4A boys title and finished third in the girls race behind runner-up Snake River.