Peter Mecham overcomes illness to help lift Orem boys track to a 4A state title
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- Orem boys celebrate winning the 2025 4A state championship at BYU’s Clarence F. Robison Track and Field Complex in Provo on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
Dealing with a fever of 103.8 degrees Friday night, Orem junior Peter Mecham’s individual and team aspirations stood in jeopardy entering the final day of the state track and field meet Saturday.
Nobody would have blamed him if he stayed in bed, nursed himself back to health and turned the page to next year.
Instead, Mecham insisted on racing.
And through prayer, medicine and, according to coach Andy Jacobs, “heart and courage,” he was able to deliver.
Mecham ran a 1:54.24 in the 800-meter final to claim an individual title and added a fifth-place finish in the 1,600-meter final to pace the Tiger boys to a 4A state championship at BYU’s Clarence F. Robison Track and Field Complex in Provo on Saturday.
“I was super worried that I wasn’t going to be able to race at all today,” he said. “Just prayed, prayed a ton, 20 times a day, Priesthood blessing, that sort of stuff. I think there were some miracles that worked because I was able to race and race well.”
Mecham also anchored the Tigers’ second-place finish in the 4-by-800 meter relay Friday, contributing 22 points towards Orem’s total tally.
Orem finished the weekend with 76 points, while Park City was second with 56 and Mountain View placed third with 55.
“Most kids out there in the United States say, ‘Hey, I can’t do it. I’m a junior, I got next year, I’m going to call it in,'” Jacobs said. “And if he calls it in, we don’t win a team championship. And so that’s the heart that we talked about all season.”
Mecham was just one of two individual winners for the Tigers, joining Isaac Strong who won the 300-meter hurdles with a 38.37 to spearhead a strong performance from the Orem hurdle crew.
Chase Horne placed third in the 300-meter hurdles, and in the 110-meter hurdles Strong added a fourth-place finish while Dylan Dye was eighth. The Tigers sprinters ran for second in the 4-by-100 meter relay, Strong added a fifth-place finish in the 200-meter final and Takashi Shipp finished fourth in the 3,200-meter final.
“It’s wide open in 4A on the boys side,” Jacobs said. “We knew we had a good enough team with distance, with sprinters, with hurdlers … We have a fairly young team that really stepped up. Going into it I knew we’d be in the mix but you always want your kids to outperform and they definitely did this week.
“We put a plan together, we worked with my coaching staff, who’s the best coaching staff in the country, and we just mapped out a plan for our runners this weekend, and I think we optimized what we could do.”
Mecham’s 800-meter victory followed by a strong 4-by-100 meter race gave Orem some separation in the team standings going into the final events Saturday afternoon.
Winning the 800 required chasing down Pine View’s Bridger Jaggi, who led the first 700 meters of the race. Mecham made his move around the curve and was able to out pace Jaggi down the stretch to win by five-tenths of a second.
“I used the final curve as a slingshot to get myself out with some momentum to Lane 3, and then I think it was just who wanted it more,” he said. “I was just digging deep, my form fell apart, looked super goofy, but I wanted it so bad.”
Knowing his team was in contention for the overall title was extra motivation for Mecham to push through his illness and go for it.
“I knew going into this that we had a shot at this,” he said. “I was thinking before all my races to remember I’m racing for more than just myself. It feels amazing. As soon as I realized it was maybe doable, I’ve just been so excited and so happy to be able to contribute to that. Very glad that I did not stay in bed this morning.”
