Highland cross country represented by four runners at state meet

Qualifying for state is the dream of most high school athletes. Four runners from Highland’s cross country team qualified for the state meet held on Oct. 19 at Sugar House Park. Kye Nielsen and Alex Moss represented the boys side while Alexa Nelson and Ida Tovar represented the girls. Although Highland only sent four individuals to the race, coach Gary Rowles said he was happy with his team’s performance this year.

“We had 32 kids that finished the season running with us,” he said. “One key to the future development of this team is getting more kids on our team. As a team we were disappointed we didn’t qualify, but we’re very proud of the four who did.”

Nielsen is only a sophomore this year but managed to medal during the region meet, taking 9th place in Region 6. His finish at state was 17:42.9, which wasn’t enough to medal, but was a great experience for him, Rowles said.

This was the first year Moss participated in cross country. He has been running track during high school but decided to come out for cross country during his senior year. He finished the 3-mile race at state in 19:39.4. Rowles said Moss is a great runner who fit right into the team.

“Alex did a great job for us at state and we’re proud of his performance,” he said. “The fact that he qualified his first year out is amazing.”

Tovar and Nelson are both juniors this year and will be back next year to provide the senior leadership on the girls team. For Tovar, this was the second year she qualified for state and the experience will help her next year, she said.

“I feel very privileged to race again this year, it was a very good experience,” she said. “The race was hard but I was able to stay focused and come up with a good time for me. It was one of my better races. I was more comfortable during the race and was able to push myself a little more.”

Highland will graduate 10 seniors this year. Rowles said this year’s seniors helped out a lot, pushing the younger runners and being a good example. Mary Santistevan, Josh Frank-Weis and Christian Barlow were this team’s veteran runners. Their leadership, work ethic and attitude are what drove this team this season, Rowles said.