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It's one of the premier track and field events in the West.

In addition to that, the BYU Invitational is the final major prelude to the state meet — a final chance for athletes to qualify for events. And to top it off, it's just plain competitive.

You have Davis and Riverton battling it out. Not only that, you have Classes 3A, 4A, and 5A in the same group, which makes everything more competitive.

"It's fun for us every year because we usually don't get out to see the better athletes in some of the smaller classifications like 3A," Davis coach Preston Parrish said. "It's a great meet. Anyone can come out of anywhere and have a phenomenal day. It's always who has the best day, and this year is expected to be no different."

The invitational is largely a two-day event, with most qualifying events on Friday. Saturday is the heavy lifting, with field event finals in the morning and track finals in the afternoon.

Friday's running events got off to a scintillating start with the 3,200-meter finals.

North Summit's Erica Birk crushed the Class 2A record — 11 minutes, 21 seconds by San Juan's Tara Laws set in 1989 — when she ran 11:06.10 in the first event of the day.

American Fork senior Austin West broke the Class 5A record in the boys' 3,200 — 9:05.33 by Mountain View's Ryan Andrus set in 1997 — by winning in 9:04.75.

What spectators will see Saturday is an event run similarly to the state meet — in intensity and pressure.

"Familiarity is a big thing," said Bart Thompson, Utah High School Activities association assistant director. "Athletes are going to want to get to know the track, especially high jumpers, who need to measure their steps."

Davis and Riverton are the giants of Class 5A, two teams with as much depth than anyone in the state. Hurricane has one of the best teams in Class 3A.

In the smaller classifications, North Summit was too much for anyone to handle and won the Class 1-2A division last season. Much of that was due to North Summit's depth and ability to score in every event.

Davis won the division with the larger schools, but as before mentioned the Darts promise to receive a stiff challenge from both Riverton and American Fork.