There wasn’t even any suspense.

When four of the first seven runners across the finish line at the 5A boys state cross country meet were wearing American Fork uniforms, everyone in the stadium knew that the Cavemen had done it again.

American Fork earned its fourth consecutive state title in dominant fashion with a 29. Closest competitor Davis had all its scoring runners finish in the top 18, but on this day, that wasn’t nearly good enough as the Cavemen placed all five in the top 11.

The Darts ended up with a 54 and the silver trophy. Region 4 rivals showed very well, with Riverton taking third, Bingham fourth and Lone Peak sixth, but the top prize was claimed by American Fork.

“I’m tickled pink,” said Caveman coach Timo Mostert. “This was our first goal all year. This means a whole lot more because none of these boys were on varsity two years ago. Having some with state experience from last year helped though.”

The coach said his squad’s approach to this race was similar to what they’ve done at state in the past.

“Our strategy was to come out strong but not too strong,” he said. “We hit our target splits at the first and second mile marks, and I knew if we’d finish the race the way we have all year, we’d win.”

The scoring runners set a school record for this course, bettering the previous mark by four seconds. The top four all posted times under 16 minutes.

It isn’t exactly a secret that American Fork’s success has a great deal to do with the way the boys train and foster a team-first mentality.

To see them running as a pack through the streets of their home town is so common that it just seems natural, like part of the landscape, but that’s not the case everywhere.

“Our boys had the best summer ever,” Mostert continued. “Our youngsters bought into what we do. If they can keep that up, we’ll be good for a long time to come.”

It was still a senior and captain who brought them home, however. Finishing second behind Kramer Morton of Alta, Brayden McLelland posted a 15:18.1.

“There was a lot of tough competition this year,” he said. “Coming into the race, I knew I had to stick in the top group for the first mile or mile and a half and then just push hard to the finish.”

With his teammates staying right with him, the approach worked. “We run like this so that no one else has the energy to kick at the end,” he explained.

He was followed by junior Connor McMillan in fourth, senior Tyson Green fifth, sophomore Zac Jacklin seventh and junior Caleb Thompson 11th. Junior Spencer Herzog was 13th and junior Tyler Bell 32nd.

As for his own personal goals, he said he finished higher and with a better time than he expected, so he was content with that.

“I’m really happy Kramer won,” he said. “He’s a great kid and he’s worked so hard, this is a perfect ending for him.”

The overall experience this year has been very memorable for McLelland. “It’s been a great experience for me to be a leader. It’s been hard sometimes but mostly fun. This has been an easy group to work with. We’ve built a lot of friendships,” he said.

The next goal for the team is to prepare for the upcoming Southwest Regionals, where the Cavemen have also been victorious for the past three years.

4A

The inidividual title race in this class was a two-man affair between Logan’s Jerrell Mock and Timberwolf senior Jacob Heslington.

They ran neck-and-neck the entire distance, but Heslington reached the finish line less than a second ahead of his competitor to claim his second consecutive individual title with a 15:06.9.

“We’ve been running just like that ever since last year,” he said. “It’s been very stressful to have that pressure all season. It’s great to have it done.”

Heslington was still confident, however. “I knew what I had to do,” he said. “Everyone was so fast this year, I knew I just had to keep pushing. To break 15:10 is amazing. There were a lot of people who wanted me to win so I didn’t want to disappoint them.”

Two other locals, Orem’s Matt Owens (8th) and Mountain View’s Jaydn Asay (9th) earned All-State honors with top-10 marks. Westlake’s Austin Brower came in 11th.

Herriman and Bonneville were the top of the heap, but the next four team places were captured by local programs with Mountain View third, Timpanogos fourth, Orem fifth and Westlake sixth. Springville rounded out the top group in 10th place.

3A

Wasatch coach Lisa Willey joked that her team was a bit paranoid about running on grass.

The boys are used to hitting hills and trails.

But the school produced its finest boys team finish in more than a decade by placing second as a team.

“We’re still going to do a little more work on grass next year,” the coach said. “But this was a great result.”

Willey pointed out that there are five seniors that “have been working at this for four years.”

Well, not exactly.

Brian Probst is a senior … but this is his first year of running on the team.

And all he did was finish ninth overall to lead the Wasps.

“He ran out of his head,” Willey said, smiling.

Only Ogden was better. Willey was proud to outlast the annual depth of Park City, which took fourth despite having the champion, senior Ben Saarel, who ran the day’s fastest time among the five classifications (14:56).

Probst was nearly 65 seconds off the pace. But even second place was 26 ticks back.

Talem Franco finished 17th to help pace Wasatch and Jeremy Willey was 21st.

2A

Freshman Jack McCulloch of Wasatch Academy took 11th.

Jason Franchuk contributed to this report. Beky Beaton can be reached at bbeaton@heraldextra.com. Follow her on Twitter at @BeatonWrite.