It's early in the morning and the grass is still drenched with dew. Staring down at his stopwatch, Jeff Wyant reads the numbers on his clock as they race upward. Suddenly, he looks up and his jaw drops.

It shouldn't, but it does.

He sees Ben Saarel obliterating the field in the team's two-mile time trial Monday morning at Willow Creek Park. "Holy cow," said the Park City High School cross-country coach. "Ben's already here."

Saarel, the two-time defending 3A state champion in cross-country, is cruising, which should come as no surprise. Now a senior, the modest, yet supreme talent has dominated the last two years racing for the Miners. Combining cross-country and track & field, he has won six individual state championships.

He flies by Wyant and the head coach calls out his time.

It is there that the head coach who has helped the Park City program reach its own level of dominance during his tenure says what most coaches never say.