Davis girls ready to pick up where they left off
By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor
The Davis girls spent some time at US#1 and they will go into NXN Southwest on Saturday in Mesa, Ariz. at US#2.
And they're OK with that.
Ever since their impressive win at the Utah state championships back on Oct. 23, Davis has been gearing up for a big effort at regionals and a chance to show America what it's made of on Dec. 7.
But regardless of how things shake out, coach Corbin Talley said there is already a lot to be proud of. Consider for a moment that Davis sent four girls to New York City's Armory for New Balance Indoors and they won the 4x800 relay with the No. 3 indoor performance of all-time (8:56.57).
Three of the girls from that group graduated. Only one of the girls from last year's state title team -- Ashley Tyndall -- was back in the lineup this year. (Taylor Cox missed the state meet recovering from a foot surgery but did compete at NXN).
"We started the summer thinking we might be able to win a state title," Talley said. "And then by the end of June we were hitting these workouts. One that we do is an eight-mile trail run, and it told us we are so much better than we think we are."
As it turned out, this varsity team of one freshman and six seniors turned out to be special.
That freshman, Aubrey Argyle, has become the team's No. 1.
"We knew Aubrey would be good but we didn't know it would be like this," Talley said.
Argyle's breakthrough came on Sept. 14, when she won the BYU Autumn Classic.
"That was the revelation that she is something legit right now," he said. "All through the summer she kind of showed that, but I didn't realized she'd be our No. 1."
It was a big result at the Bob Firman Invite that boosted Davis to the top of the DyeStat rankings on Oct. 2.
"There was so much hype that first day," Talley said. "We called the newspaper, printed it out and put it up on the wall at practice, people saw it on Facebook, they Tweeted about it Instagrammed about it."
After the initial wave of excitement wore off the team started to contemplate what the ranking meant.
"All seven of them said 'We're so worried we won't run like the No. 1 team in the nation,'" Talley said. "We went up and ran this trail in Ogden and I asked them 'What do you think about being No. 1 in the nation?' They felt some pressure, for sure. But we decided right then and there to not let it control us and to not make too big a deal about it."
Davis enjoyed the attention and wore it well for more than a month.
Then, given more time to hit their stride after a pair of losses, seven-time national champion Fayetteville-Manlius of New York has surged back to the top on the heels of an impressive state meet win.
"I would put Manlius (No. 1) as well," Talley said.
Davis is OK with being No. 2, for now. But there is growing confidence in Kaysville, Utah that this team -- Argyle, Cox, Tyndall, McKenzie Weir, Sierra Graham, Hannah Albrechtsen, Aimee Vance -- can compete for the national championship.
Davis put together what amounted to an intrasquad meet on its regional course last week and ran faster than it did in October. Seven girls ran 18:10 or faster -- including Cox (17:25) and Argyle (17:26) -- on the three-mile course.
"The number one difference for us is that we used to approach it like the state meet is our season," Talley said. "Now, getting to NXN, that's our season."
