Ten inches is what separated Rylee Mulitalo from an elusive state title in the shot put.

All THS junior Mulitalo had to do was throw the shot put at least 10 inches farther than her best throw thus far at the state track meet at Brigham Young University Friday morning and the title was hers.

Her first throw of 40 feet 1 inch was sitting in second place behind Sky View junior Maarja Maetoga’s 40 foot 11 inch heave. On Mulitalo’s last throw in the shot put finals, she heaved it 41 feet 6 1/4 inch to take over the lead — more than 10 inches farther than her previous best of 40 feet 8 inches — and broke the school record for the third time this year. Then, Mulitalo had to wait for Maetoga to take her last throw. Maetoga scratched leaving Mulitalo with the 4A state title.

The moment was exhilarating for Mulitalo who’s focused her efforts on improving her shot put this year.

“It was a really nice PR (personal record),” Mulitalo said. “It would have been nice to win the discus, too.”

She placed fourth — the same as last year — with a throw of 109 feet 11 inches in the discus.

Tooele track coach Albert Bottema was pleased with her performance considering Mulitalo has been suffering from a bad shoulder the past two seasons and pulled a hamstring in April.

“We were really excited for her,” Bottema said. “She was a little disappointed in the disc. But we’ve got another year for her and I think she’ll be really strong next year.”

Mulitalo wasn’t the only Tooele County track athlete to claim a state title at the state track meet Friday and Saturday after a slew of second-place showings at last year’s meet.

Grantsville senior Lorin Killpack wasn’t expected to take the 3A girls 100 meter title, but she never lost the lead in the short sprint coming in at 12.74 for the state crown.

“My blocks were really good,” Killpack said. “I got out of there really fast. The other girls were really fast.”

Killpack also placed second in the 200 meters with a time of 25.78.

Dugway senior Bre Nichols became a reigning champion in the 300 meter hurdles after capturing that title for the second consecutive year in the 1A division. Nichols never lost the lead in her 48.15 finish, a full second ahead of runner-up Whitney Fieldsted from Altamont. But it was Rich High School’s Jessica Weston who Nichols thought would wind up winning, although Weston finished third.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Nichols said immediately following the race. “It feels really good and it was fun racing Jessica, she’s a tough competitor.”

Nichols also took fourth in the 200 meters (28.10) and was part of the second-place 4x100-meter relay team along with Lindsey Kimler, Katie Nielson and Kylee Morse.

Dugway track coach Jaren Wadsworth said he’s proud of how the athletes finished with the girls taking seventh overall with only nine team members and the boys tied for 16th with only seven athletes out of 23 teams.

“We’re small in number and big in heart,” Wadsworth said. “When you have that small of numbers all you can ask for is their best.”

Dugway also had a handful of fourth-place finishers with Kimler in the 100 meters (17.77), Nielson in the 800 meters (2:28.01) and Jake Palmer in the discus at 118 feet 3 inches.

After Tooele’s girls team finished first in Region 6, they were expected to place high in the state meet as well. They ended up fifth overall thanks to placings from Mulitalo and short- to mid-distance runners.

THS’s 4x100 meter girls relay team of Cassidee Christensen, Lizzie Stewart, Airica Stewart and Lindsay Terry came in second at 49.42 and Colter Rockwell finished third in the 800 meters at 1:57.33 — tying the school record.

“The girls 4x400-meter relay team (Terry, Jessica Anderson, Airica Stewart and Christensen) in the preliminaries set a school record [of 4:00.43],” Bottema said. They made it to finals and got disqualified for a lane violation.

Terry who was expected to finish near the top of the podium in the sprint races came in third in the 100 meters at 12.49 and fourth in the 200 meters at 25.59. Teammate Anderson clocked in a 47.30 time for sixth place in the 300 meter hurdles while Becca Smaellie also took sixth in the javelin with a heave of 112 feet even, both have been battling injuries all season, Bottema said.

“We’ve got a good nucleus coming back,” he said. “We’re going to miss some seniors but we’ve got great young kids to come back and I think my biggest concern this year is we didn’t stay healthy. We should be a contender next year.”

Stansbury High School junior Tyson Lambert was the only medal finisher for the new school taking second in the 1600 meter run. Lambert also took eighth in the 3200 meters at 9:47.91. The 4x100-meter relay team of Ky Bender, Aaron Garcia, LeRon Johnson and LaDonte Jones finished eighth for Stansbury as well at 45.04.

SHS track coach Steve Allen felt that this first year at the school was quite productive and the athletes are showing great improvement.

“We had high expectations, but feel our kids met those expectations and in some cases went beyond our expectations, which was pretty cool,” Allen said. “We’re hoping that from their experience they’ll be able to take it to the next level next year, not just in track but other things they’re part of.”

Wendover’s highest finisher was senior Soloman Gonzales who took second in the discus at 128 feet 1/4 inch and third in the javelin at 165 feet 6 inches. Ananisa Serna threw in a pair of fifth-place throws in the discus at 87 feet 1 3/4 inches and the shot put at 32 feet 1 inch. Cody Marcu (17.54) and Steven Lemmon (17.58) finished seventh and eighth respectively in the 110-meter hurdles to round out the scoring Wildcat track athletes.

“I thought there were other kids throughout the county who performed well,” Bottema said. “There were great performances from Tooele County high schools at state meets in all classification.”

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com