By Jerry Christensen | [email protected]

The Canyons School District bond that rebuilt Brighton High School also added two lanes to the stadium track. With a full-sized track, Brighton is able to host multi-school track meets as a destination venue. Throwing events have expanded to the Brighton athletic facility at Butler Park across Bengal Boulevard. Aspiring runners, jumpers and throwers are turning up in droves to hone their skills on Brighton’s boys and girls track teams.  

One hundred and ninety-five student-athletes turned up this month to defend Brighton’s 2021 region championships. Track coach Kirk Merhish said that “while the new facilities are attractive to the athletes, we have a stronger recruiting effort coming from other sports with coaches strongly recommending that students be multi-sport athletes.” 

Track and field has such diverse events that football players, wrestlers, basketball players and even volleyball players can augment their skills and endurance. Simi Fehoko, Brighton’s outstanding football receiver (class of 2016) who excelled at Stanford and now plays for the Dallas Cowboys credits much of his speed development to his time on the Brighton track. 

At recent track meets at Brighton and at Herriman, Brighton’s sheer numbers dominated the events. Brighton junior Lia Belle Selander bested the long-distance runners with a 12:20 2300m time to bring home the first place medal. Boys and girls track teams defend their region championship May 12 at Park City High School with qualifiers going to the state tournament May 21 at BYU.