POCATELLO – The 2020 track season took a toll on Shane Gard. Err, the cancellation of the 2020 track season. COVID snatched that away, flipped the Monopoly board on the dreams and aspirations of a million runners across the country. All their hard work was for what? A preseason race in February?

Gard fell ill during his junior cross country campaign, and slipped to a 20th-place state finish that he knew was well below his potential. The ensuing months were spent making sure the same thing didn’t happen in track, where Gard thought he had a real shot at winning a state title last spring.

When that was taken out of his control, he tried to keep running, keep training. Through the monotony of this summer, though, his miles faded. He took up backpacking and hiking, tranquil activities to clear his mind.

“It just kind of reminded me why I love running,” Gard said. “You put in this hard work and you can see results come out of it.”

On Friday, Gard saw what those results look like. His floppy brown curls bounced as he nodded coming down the homestretch, taking a peek at the clock and then the ground, knowing full well no one was in front of him.

“Shane is just Shane. He works hard and is just an all-around, outdoor kid,” said Pocatello coach Shannon Whitmer. “He wanted it. He knew that he wanted it today. I’m proud of him.”

Gard won the 4A boys cross country state championship at the Portneuf Wellness Complex with a time of 15:42.29. Century’s Xander Thompson finished nine seconds behind him (15:51.21) for second and Gard’s Poky teammate, Brevin Vaughn, took bronze (15:57.45).

“I’ve ran here enough to know that I need to be smart that first mile,” Thompson said. “I just tried to take the first two easy and then race the last one. ... I’m very happy with how I executed.”

The surprise of the day, perhaps, was that Gard had no challengers at the end. After all, he was neck-and-neck with Preston’s Sam Jeppsen down the final 200-meter stretch of the district race. Heck, the pair have been battling all year, probably the odds-on-favorites to go 1-2 on Friday.

But Jeppsen’s state run didn’t go as planned.

“You could tell Sam didn’t have it today, but he had a choice. He could have either really faded because he was hurting or he could have dug deep,” Preston coach Tyler Jones said.

“I was hoping for a PR, not even close,” said Jeppsen, who still led Preston with a fifth-place finish. “The first mile, you can’t really tell, because you’re too excited. When we came around after that, I was like, woah, this is not going to be my day.

“You have to be tough, you have to push hard. I tell myself, you can fall over when you get across the line if you push your body completely.”

Jeppsen may have had the last laugh, though. About 20 minutes after the boys race wrapped up, Jeppson was out in front of his teammates, walking around the Wellness Complex in his signature neon yellow socks, the boys first-place trophy raised high above his head for all to see.

Preston took home its first boys 4A state championship since 2007 with 49 points, followed by second-place Poky (66) and third-place Blackfoot (89).

“The last two years we’ve come in second,” Jones said. “All year, that’s been the boys goal, to win a state championship.”

For Preston, the boys result was, in some ways, a make-up for what transpired an hour prior. Its girls squad narrowly missed out on the first-place team title, tallying 67 points for second. Skyline took the title with 62 points and Pocatello notched bronze with a score of 90.

“It’s a great group of girls. We have those four freshmen and in junior high they got a lot of confidence. Every meet they ran in last year, they won as a team,” Jones said. “This should give them a lot of confidence and something to shoot for after coming so close this year.”

Added Whitmer, Poky’s coach: “I think they ran the best they could. Two years ago, we didn’t make it to state and then last year we made it and just missed the medal stand,” Whitmer said. “Today, to come in and take home the third-place trophy is awesome.”

In an odd twist for a state championship, no pack formed up front in the 4A girls race. Instead, Skyline’s Nelah Roberts – the eventual champion with a time of 17:52.06 – and Bonneville’s Alivia Johnson burst out and quickly separated themselves by the halfway point.

And that made Bailey Bird’s second-place finish all that more surprising. Still breathing hard after her personal-best time, the Poky sophomore kept looking back at the course, almost trying to piece the race back together. It didn’t quite make sense that she ran that fast.

“I’m really happy, but that was such a hard race. I’ve never ran that hard before. I was trying to keep up with everyone who was in front of me and they were going really fast,” Bird said. “Everyone was cheering so I just tried really hard. I didn’t think I was going to get that time.”

The top five finishers in the 4A girls race all posted PRs, as did the seventh-place finisher from Preston, freshman Angelie Scott — the first of the Indians’ five placers, all of which were in the top-21.

“I actually felt like I was really pushing the whole time,” Scott said. “I feel like my team is really good and I’m so proud of them. They all work so hard.”

5A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

For one mile, then two miles, Borah’s Nathan Green sat on his closest competitor’s shoulder and waited.

But in the third mile of Friday’s boys 5A state cross country championship at the Portneuf Wellness Complex, the most decorated runner in Idaho history made his move, kicking past Idaho Falls’ Mitchell Athay and winning his third-straight state title with a time of 15 minutes, 26.3 seconds.

As he cruised to the finish line, Green raised his arms, putting up three fingers as if to remind the spectators crowding the chute of his accomplishments.

“It feels awesome to come home as the three-time defending state champ in cross country,” said Green, who didn’t race because of injuries his freshman year. “Finishing off a great high school career in cross country means everything. ... I don’t even know how to describe it, it’s just like a peaceful, awesome moment when you can come through and know what you’ve done.”

Athay finished second in 15:39.07 to key a dominant team performance for Idaho Falls as Tiger runners also finished third, fourth, 10th and 11th. I.F. easily won the team trophy with 23 points to Rocky Mountain’s 78.

Highland senior Jared Harden, running without a team, ended his career with a personal-record time of 15:55.99 and a fifth-place finish, despite being outleaned by Idaho Falls’ Luke Athay at the finish line for fourth.

“My goal this whole senior year was to get top-five at state, and then (run) under 16 (minutes),” Harden said. “So I got both of those today. ... I’m really happy.”

The only other Highland runner, junior Jacob Van Orden, just missed a state medal, finishing 22nd.

What’s crazy is that’s Green’s performance might not even have been the most impressive of the day at the 5A level. In the girls race, Boise had the three top finishers and five of the top seven to easily win the team trophy with 18 points, just off a perfect score of 15.

Post Falls finished second with 104.

Freshman Samantha Smith, not even a week removed from helping lead the Brave to a state runner-up finish in soccer, took the win for Boise with a time of 17:45.34, 30 seconds before her second-place teammate Rosina Machu.

“I haven’t raced in five weeks because I’ve been playing soccer, so I was just hoping to push it and just stick with (Eagle’s) Lizzie (Dildine, who finished fourth) and (Boise’s) Allie (Bruce, third),” Smith said. “I wanted to try my hardest.

“It’s super fun to be part of such a great team. (The results) were pretty crazy, I don’t think many other schools have probably ever done that.”

3A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

The drama was limited in the 3A state championship, as it often is when the eye test can declare a winner. Those near the finish line for Friday’s first boys race had a tough time missing the blue and silver Sugar-Salem jerseys packed together as they crossed.

It led to a pair of first-place trophies.

The Diggers’ boys squad took the victory by a whopping 81 points and placed a half-dozen runners in the top 10. The first to cross for Sugar-Salem was Porter Holt, who notched bronze with a time of 16:50.12, about 30 seconds behind the winner, Gooding’s Owen Rogers.

“It feels good to win. We’ve always just stayed in a pack with Sugar,” Rogers, a sophomore, said. “I was slower earlier in the season, then I started going harder and harder. I felt like I (peaked) at the right time.”

Behind Sugar-Salem in the boys team championship were Teton (111), Gooding (118) and Snake River (131), which just barely earned a trophy. The Panthers’ fastest runner, Lincoln High, came in 15th.

In the girls meet, Snake River had a miraculous showing. The Panthers finished in second with 71 points, less than 30 short of Sugar-Salem’s championship performance. Still, Snake River notched its first girls state trophy since 2014.

Snake River’s top scorer was Hailey Raymond, who came in fourth with a time of 20:01.41. Sugar-Salem won the team title, in large part, because it placed a trio of girls in the top 10, led by Jaresa Jackson (second, 19:38.58).

But, on Friday, they couldn’t catch McCall-Donnelly senior Sophie McManus, who won the 3A girls title by more than 50 seconds (18:47.66).

“I was just so excited to win another state title. I was actually in 2A last year, so this was my first one in 3A,” McManus said. “I think the competition was actually tougher last year in 2A for some strange reason. I’m just holding on to where I was.

“I was just happy to even have a season at all with everything going on, so I was grateful for that.”