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Prep cross-country: North Summit's Sadie Sargent is in a league of her own

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) North Summit runner Sadie Sargent is embraced by her grandparents, Milt and Becky Sargent, after taking first in the Highland Invitational high school cross country meet Thursday August 17, 2017. Sargent is by far the fastest runner in Class 2A. She owns the 2A state record for fastest time at the state meet for a freshman, sophomore and junior, and she'll try to make it four for four later this year.

Coalville • Cross-country running doesn’t necessarily have to be an isolated experience.

But maybe it does for North Summit senior Sadie Sargent.

That’s because Sargent is essentially peerless at the Class 2A level and, even at the state championship race last year, she ran alone. Sargent won with a time 37 seconds better than the second-place finisher and a whopping 1 minute, 43 seconds ahead of third.

When Sargent crossed the finish line at the Highland High football stadium, everyone else was working their way through Sugar House Park. Cross-country races are 3 miles long, normally not enough of a distance to create marathon-like gaps.

SADIE SARGENT <br>School • North Summit <br>Year • Senior <br>Accomplishments • Won Class 2A state title as a junior. … Owns the Class 2A state record time at the state meet for a freshman, sophomore and junior. … Won her season-opening race at the Highland Invitational, which featured more than 220 runners in the varsity race, by more than 9 seconds.

“I have the goals that I’ve set in the past, and all the work I’ve put in practice, I just think, ‘I want to get my goals and this has got to pay off,’” Sargent said about what she’s thinking about in moments like those.

These days, Sargent says she sometimes practices on her own by running a 4-mile circuit around her community in Wanship — about a 10-minute drive from Coalville, where she goes to school at North Summit.

There’s a couple of things you should know about that practice regimen: 1) By “community,” Sargent means a neighborhood where each house is about a quarter-mile from the next; and, 2) She might be the only runner out there, but she’s not alone.

“The middle of nowhere,” Sargent said. “I run that loop a couple of times. There’s a couple of roads that go off of it — real quiet and not a lot of people.

“I got chased by a skunk the other day, that was good times. I was coming across one of our roads and I saw him run across, so I thought, ‘Well, I’ll go the other way.’ I turned around and he was right behind me.”

She can outrun some forms of wildlife, but the human kind of distraction is a little different.

While practicing, Sargent has had cars sidle up to her and the driver chat while she runs.

“The people I do see, they’re pretty much my family,” said Sargent, who eventually tells them she can’t talk right now — although she admits she’s let these impromptu conversations last as long as 10 minutes.

Sargent would be easy to miss in a crowd of runners … if she were ever in one. At 5 foot 5, she expressed pride recently that she weighed in at 110 pounds. “Finally,” she exclaimed.

Building up to this year’s state meet, Sargent is taking every opportunity in the eight races allowed before to go against girls from any classification. Her time last year was only bested by Bingham’s Whitney Rich and Weber’s McKenna Lee in the Class 5A race and by Class 4A winner Julie Sumsion from Springville

Sargent won an all-comers race at Highland High on Thursday, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Wasatch’s Abby West in second.

The second-place finisher at last year’s 2A state meet was her teammate at North Summit. Maggie Zwalen would have been an easy state champion if not for Sargent.

“What really helps Sadie a lot is to have somebody with her,” North Summit coach Dave Peck said. “I think it’s very difficult to run alone. It really helps for someone to run with her and do the workout with her.”

And there’s other competitors at the high school, too.

“Me and Maggie usually work out with the boys every day just because they’re with us. We have fun, but boys are boys,” Sargent said.

When it comes to girls, the Braves’ senior has specific goals in the fall.

“I kind of want to go undefeated in all the races I participate in this year,” she said. “You can only run in eight. I’m looking for good competition, fun courses, stuff like that.”

And if a skunk crosses her path, she’s ready for that, too.