9 varsity runners came away with PRs as Rocky Mountain opened the season by winning every race of the Jerome Open Invite on Thursday, August 29th.
The varsity boys team swept the top five places and secured spots 7 and 8, winning with a perfect score of 15. Senior Cody Lucas won the race overall, comfortably ahead of a second place Hyrum Tuft. “Honestly, I’m really hyped the whole squad did awesome,” Tuft said. “A lot of people showed up with the intent to rip the course to shreds which was just awesome to be a part of.” Hudson Godfrey (Sr) was just edged into 7th place by Pocatello runner Thomas Peterson, and senior Jaymon Clark (Sr) rounded out the race for Rocky not far behind.
Just before this, the varsity girls team won their race with an overall score of 20. Junior Hallie Heemeyer took 2nd overall as Rocky swept spots 2-6, as well as 11 and 12. Freshman Eve Archibald ran her first high school race as a member of the varsity squad, a major accomplishment. “I feel that the race overall went really well! It was a lot harder and longer than I expected but I feel really happy with how well I did for my first race,” said Archibald. “It is a lot more intense than racing in middle school was, but the other six girls on the varsity team are really supportive.”
Impressively, the first 13 finishers of the JV boys race were all wearing Rocky jerseys, scoring a perfect 15 to win the race. Senior Jaron Allen and sophomore Jack Davis took first and second respectively, with Spencer McCune (Sr) rounding out the sweep. “Coach Dave [Elliott] yelled at me and two of my teammates that I was racing with. He told us that there were only two jerseys that aren’t [Rocky’s] ahead of us, and we had to get them. The fight began, and together with my teammates all three of us caught and passed both guys,” said McCune of the sweep.
The JV girls team ran the first race of the day and set the tone by sweeping spots 1-8 and coming away with 15 points to win. Freshman Makelle Carlson won the race overall for Rocky, and strong performances from the rest of the team helped put the race away.
Coming off a highly successful opening meet on a fast Jerome course, Rocky now looks forward to the Tiger/Grizz Invitational on September 13th.
Placements and scores courtesy of Athletic.net
