Heath leads the way for LHS runners

Richard Anderson photos
Runners take off in the girls' race Friday during the Laamie Invitational at Jacoby Golf Course. At bottom, Jacob Heath finishes fifth to lead the Plainsmen.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Laramie High School senior Jacob Heath has a typical cross country running body -- the leaner the better. He proved it by mockingly flexing his muscles after Friday’s season-opening Laramie Invitational at the Jacoby Golf Course.

Despite his fifth-place finish to pace the Plainsmen, Heath said he wasn’t as strong down the stretch as he would like to be.

“I felt pretty good, but I kind of died in the second half,” Heath said. “The first half I felt relaxed and felt good until the hill; then I fell hard after that.”

The combination of early in the season, school just beginning and a weight-training class came back to haunt him, Heath said.

“I’m a little sore from weight training class,” he said with a smile. “I’m not too strong, as you can see.”

Heath, however, was strong enough the first time out to challenge the top runners in the meet and likely in the state. He was one of three Plainsmen to finish in the Top 10, as the Laramie boys were third in the team scoring (83 points) behind Gillette (40) and Cheyenne Central (63).

The meet, a precursor to the University of Wyoming Invitational, proved to be a big hit with the high school runners and the coaches.

“It was really cool because some of my UW friends were here and they cheered me on; my parents and friends came,” Heath said. “It was really cool because it was a course that UW made and we were not really familiar with it. It was the first time we raced on it, a 4K.”

Laramie coach Greg Schabron, in the first meet of his inaugural season as head coach, said he was pleased without even looking at the official results.

“Some of our kids were happy; some of them were not, but it was great to get that first race out of the way,” Schabron said. “It’s the first step of the year.”

Heath got out to a good start and was running second until halfway through the course where he said he was passed by the leaders.

“I thought to myself that if I don’t get out of here, I am going to get boxed in,” Heath said. “I wanted to compete at my best level.”

Despite some soreness on Friday, Heath’s mileage this summer paid off, Schabron said.

“You could tell, especially Heath, who went out and ran several hundred miles this summer,” Schabron said.

Not far behind Heath were teammates Ethan Lockwood, in eighth place in 14:30.4 and Erik Boss in 10th place in 14:42.4. Gillette teammates Dominick Robinson and Spencer Pecha placed first and second respectively in 13:22.2 and 13:47.6. Saratoga’s Hayden Hohnholt was third in 13:51.5 and Devin Rathburn of Central was fourth in 14:01.4.

For the young Lady Plainsmen team, sophomore Ashley Lane was 18th in 18:34.2 and junior Mary Goetz was 23rd in 18:51.6. Laramie was sixth in the six-team field, with Central running away with 40 points, to 50 for second-place Sheridan.

“She (Lane) came out for track last year and I got to work with her. She’s got the bug now; she is just one of those positive girls all of the time,” Schabron said.

Sheridan runner Lela Carpenter and Dana Morin were one-two in the meet in 16:05.09 and 16.10.9 respectively.

While there were some ups and downs, Schabron said it was a good way to open the season.

“I’m excited to get back to the office and look at the mile splits to see where kids excelled and where they might need to work on,” Schabron said.

Laramie will be at the Rawlins Invitational on Friday.