The Laramie Middle School (LMS) cross country team just capped off an impressive season, winning the Nike Cross Regionals northwest meet by dominating every other team from the northwest, Alaska and Hawaii.
"We had the most amazing year," Head Coach Travis Miller said. "The girls and my boy's team just battled so hard through good amounts of adversity."
LMS went undefeated in their home state this fall. Seeking greater challenge and competition, they traveled to Denver for a large 5A race. Winning that meet too, they started training for the Nike Cross Regionals in Boise, Idaho.
Miller remembered Nike Regionals from his own time as a runner and said he saw it as the next way for the team to push itself.
"I approached the girls and their parents about going and they were all on board immediately," Miller said. "Ten of those girls were just 100 percent in it and crazy excited to have the opportunity to compete. So the decision was made, collectively, to keep training."
He said the Boise-bound team – ten girls and one boy – trained through October and November, even as swimming, soccer and basketball started to demand more of their time.
The seemingly endless mile-repeats and Saturday morning workouts paid off when the team got to Boise.
"It was the most eerie, foggy morning you could have ever asked for," Miller said. "It was pretty surreal honestly and I think it kind of took away the distraction of how big the venue was."
Boise sits at less than 3,000 feet above sea level, less than half of Laramie's 7,220.
"The girls definitely could feel a difference," Miller said. "Even as we did some warm-up stuff the day before as we walked the course and had a mental prep day."
The runners battled through sandy, hilly terrain in Boise to take first place, and all 11 runners set personal records.
"So it was just a phenomenal day for each one of them individually," Miller said. "Personal records are kind of the big thing for runners to hang their hats on."
Libby Roesler took third for girls and Darin Binning took fifth overall. Savannah Graef was the top overall sixth-grader.
At the team level, lower scores are better. The Laramie team finished with 21 points. In second place was Bozeman, Montana with 42.
Their high placings qualified several on the team for Nike Nationals, but that race might not happen this year given the COVID-19 pandemic, and Miller said the team has decided not to train for it.
He said the team would look for larger races next year. And many of the runners will be returning for another season; of the girls who competed in Boise, only Roesler is headed to high school next year.
