Colter Rockwell places 10th in region to earn trip to finals

At the beginning of this cross-country season, Tooele coach Randy Quarez made a prediction. He said that the girls team would finish fifth at the Region 7 meet and the boys could finish either fifth or sixth with at least one runner making the top 10.

His prediction came true during Saturday’s cold and snowy Region 7 meet held in Orem where the girls team qualified for state with a fifth place finish and the boys barely missed the qualifying times, finishing sixth. Colter Rockwell qualified individually for the state meet with a 10th place finish time of 15:32.

“It’s outstanding that [Rockwell] qualified, but all of the boys improved like crazy, they just didn’t qualify,” Quarez said.

Although the weather on Saturday would be less than favorable for some runners, Quarez said his runners actually prefer running in the cold.

“It snowed in the beginning and then it tailed off,” he said. “It got quite sunny, but it was still cool. I think they run better in the cold.”

The girls’ team tied with Payson for fifth place with 156 points behind Mountain View (23), Springville (59), Orem (70) and Timpview (82). However, the tiebreaker went in the Buffalo’s favor. Tooele’s sixth place runner, Megan Hammond, finished in 43rd place with a time of 21:54 beating out Payson’s sixth place runner, Mary Allphin who took 46th at 22:16.

“It was really down to the wire,” Quarez said. “We won with a little bit of luck and they stepped it up. It was too close for me as a coach.”

Amy Shields (19:52) led the Buffs with a 19th overall finish while Jenni Torgerson (20:01) and Makayla Adams (20:41) stepped up to take 23rd and 34th places respectively. Amanda Palmer (21:20) and Brittany Palmer (21:41) rounded out the five scoring times for Tooele while Hammond and Phenix Kline (22:42) kept up with the rest of the pack finishing 43rd and 47th.

“They ran great and we ran with a young team,” Quarez said. “A lot of them did improve and P.R. I’m proud how they all came together and P.R.ed at the right time.”

The times for the Buffalo boys were just as impressive, however the times from the other six schools were better. The top two times, Jon Nelson from Timpview and Ben Johnson from Orem, were under 15 minutes. Thirty-seven of the 48 Region 7 runners came across the finish line in less than 18 minutes.

One minute and 12 seconds separated Colter’s first place time from Sam Mitchell’s 16:44 run and 34th place finish. Jacob Lambert (16:57), Colton Caldwell (17:06) and Robert Schmidt (17:20) rounded out the top five times for Tooele. David Farley (17:58) and Marcus Jensen (18:45) took 44th and 46th respectively.

For the boys’ race, Timpview came in first with 35 points, followed by Mountain View (67), Orem (70), Springville (95), Provo (99), Tooele (161) and Payson (208).

“I couldn’t ask anymore from [the boys] as a coach,” Quarez said. “They did everything we asked of them; they couldn’t do anymore. They just did their best.”

Rockwell and the girls team will run at the state meet in Sugarhouse Park on Oct. 22.

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com