Close to 600 runners from 24 different teams packed Quinn’s Junction Saturday at the second-annual Park City Invitational cross-country meet.

Sophomore Ben Saarel, who is in his first year at Park City High School, made sure his first home race would be memorable.

The kid delivered.

Saarel took first in the boys’ 5K race among some of the best competition in the state, finishing with a time of 15 minutes and 41 seconds. Schools such as American Fork, Skyline and Alta were in attendance for the expanding race.

Once again, the Park City High School cross-country team delivered.

But none more so than the sophomore who took the lead after pulling away from the pack after the first mile and putting on a show for his first hometown meet.

“I haven’t been able to do that yet this year and it just felt good today,” Saarel said in regard to racing at home for the first time this season. “I came in first, so yeah, it was good.”

Saarel doesn’t really surprise anyone these days. His coach, Jeff Wyant, doesn’t flinch when he sees his sophomore phenom pull away from the pack.

“He smoked it,” Wyant said. “I was really impressed with the way he ran it. He ran the last two miles solo, which is incredible to do in a field like this.”

Wyant said Saarel is shooting to eclipse the sophomore state record.

“In order to do that, he’s going to have to run out in front,” he said. “There’s nobody else who can run with him at that speed.

“He’s an amazing runner.”

Same goes for the rest of the Miners’ cross-country team.

The boys’ team finished first overall, while the girls’ finished second in a very strong field. Other Miners’ runners who had strong outings were Connor Gideon, who finished 10th overall for the boys’ and Ali Walker, who took 3rd in the girls’ race.

Becca Cunningham finished seventh overall, while Emily Schmidt and Annie Orr finished 14th and 20th, respectively.

Wyant was more than pleased with the turnout of schools from all over Utah, and even a few from Wyoming.

“It’s growing,” Wyant said. “The reputation’s getting out now, I think. We’ve got a good cross-country reputation and we just started (the race) last year, so we’re hoping within the next few years this will be one of the premier races in the state. It’s already the second or third best race in the state, in terms of quality of the run.”

After looking for a legitimate course that Park City could call its own and be proud of, Wyant and Co. finally found it and couldn’t be happier.

“Yeah, we finally got a good course,” Wyant said. “For years we were searching for one, but hadn’t been able to find one, and now we’ve got a good race.”

Next up for the Miners will be the Region 10 meet at Quinn’s Junction on Oct. 13.

In last Wednesday’s pre-region run at Quinn’s Junction, Park City sat out nine of its top girls. The tenth won the girls’ race.

The same couldn’t be said for the boys’ squad as the JV team was trumped by Wasatch’s varsity after Wyant decided to rest the varsity runners for the Invitational and next week’s region championship.

“We’re looking for a little blood,” Wyant said half-joking. “We’re a little angry over that.”

Wyant assured that his team will be ready and focused.

“We’re looking for a clean sweep,” he said.

As for Saarel, the long-distance wunderkind kept a level head and gave credit where he thought credit was due.

“I want to win every race that I go to. This one, I just felt good today and rested up,” he said. “Every single race I try to win.

“But I couldn’t have done this without my teammates.”