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The 2022 Idaho high school cross country season put the Gem State on the national map once again.

Rocky Mountain became the first Idaho team to win the boys elite title at the Bob Firman Invitational at Eagle Island State Park and ended the season No. 10 in DyeStat's final 2022 U.S. boys team rankings. Rocky Mountain's Landon Heemeyer also became Idaho's first top 10 finisher at Champs Sports (formerly Footlocker) Nationals since Pocatello's Elijah Armstrong with his ninth place finish in 15:14.5, while Boise's Allie Bruce placed 26th in the girls race in 18:26.7. 

Post Falls' Annastasia Peters, now at Utah, capped off an undefeated season with Idaho's 5A girls individual state title in a blistering 16:56.1 and is the only Idaho girl on record to break 17 minutes for a 5k. In 4A, Skyline's Nelah Roberts, now a senior, won a third consecutive 4A girls individual state title and became eastern Idaho's first girl qualifier to Nike Cross Nationals, where she placed 24th.

While athletes like Sainsbury and Peters have graduated, several runners return from last year with more hopes and goals as they work toward the state championships scheduled for Oct. 28 at Pocatello's Portneuf Wellness Complex. This season will also be the last for multiple schools in their current classifications before they are projected to make moves for the 2024-25 school year.

Here are the stories to watch in each classification this season.

Class 5A

The 5A state titles remained in District 3 in 2022, with the Boise girls winning their fifth consecutive title and Rocky Mountain repeating as boys champions. 

Boise graduated two from the seven girls who competed at state last year but returns seniors Allie Bruce (second place at state) and Sophia Clark (33rd place). Head coach Aaron Olswanger said senior Samantha Smith (seventh place last year) will be available on a 'week by week' basis due to also playing soccer for Boise. Smith is a Stanford soccer commit and has been balancing cross country, soccer, Nordic skiing and track all four years of high school.

Bruce won the 1,600 in 4:55.87 and was part of the winning 4x800 team at 5A state track in May while Clark won four state track medals including gold in the 400 in 56.69.

"It's just an amazing group of seniors," Olswanger said by phone. "It's been fun to watch them just develop over the years. They're team leaders now."

Zoe Sims (11th place last year), now a sophomore, also joins Bruce and Smith as a returning state medalist, and Clark will again be balancing soccer and cross country this fall like Smith.

Olswanger added that junior Audrey Orme, who did not run at 2022 state cross country but went on to place second in the 1,600 in 4:58.70 and was a member of the state champion 4x800 team at the 5A state track championships in May, has 'improved a ton' over the last year.

"She is just a different human than she was last fall," Olswanger said.

Olswanger said his girls team is extremely supportive of each other.

"They love each other," Olswanger said. "They hang out all the time, encourage each other, support each other. A lot of teams get talent, but it's what you do with it."

He said he anticipates District 3 compatriots Rocky Mountain and Timberline to be Boise's biggest competition on the girls side. Boise won state by 29 points over Rocky Mountain. The girls individual title will be up for grabs upon the graduation of Peters. Bruce is the top returning girl from last year's state meet, and the six girls who placed after her in succession were also all underclassmen.

On the boys side, Rocky Mountain got four sub 15-minute 5k times from Landon Heemeyer and two sub 15-minute times from Tyler Sainsbury last season, repeating as 5A state champions by a 41-point margin and ending the year ranked No. 10 in DyeStat's final U.S. rankings.

Heemeyer, now a senior, won the Bob Firman boys elite individual title last year and the 5A boys individual state title in an all-time Idaho best 14:38.8.

Boise and Coeur d'Alene, last season's second and third place teams, are both teams to watch. Boise returns senior state medalists Kaden Helder (fifth place), Noe Kemper (10th place) and Andrew Dodds (18th place) and will add freshman Luke Bruce, Allie's brother. Helder and Kemper were on Boise's 5A state champion 4x400 and state runner-up 4x800 at 5A state rack.

"Those two are key for us," Olswanger said. "I think their improvements from last fall, we really saw it on the track. I think we're gonna be a different team because we have two legitimate front runners."

Rocky Mountain and Boise each graduated three from the seven runners who ran at state last year while Coeur d'Alene, which finished two points behind Boise last year for third place, did not graduate any runners from state. The Vikings return four medalists: Maximus Cervi-Skinner (third place), Lachlan May (fourth), Zackery Cervi-Skinner (11th) and Jacob King (13th).

"It's gonna be a battle on the boys side this year," Olswanger said. "You have to dethrone Rocky Mountain if you want to win the state meet."

In addition to the Cardinal Classic on Sept. 2 in Soda Springs and Bob Firman on Sept. 23, Olswanger said Boise is especially looking forward to traveling to the Nike Twilight Invitational on Sept. 30 in Marysville, Wash. 

"It's an evening meet," Olswanger said. "We haven't actually flown out of state since before COVID."

Class 4A

Preston repeated as 4A girls state champions last season by a 36-point margin over Skyline while Bishop Kelly won its first boys title since 2008, victorious by a 10-point margin over Idaho Falls.

Preston got top 25 finishes from all seven of its runners, including medals from Bethany Moore (ninth place), Angelie Scott (10th place), Myah Atchley (11th place), Maren Leffler (12th place) and Elly Jeppsen (19th place). None of Preston's seven state runners graduated.

All four 4A girls state trophies went to eastern Idaho teams in 2022, as Idaho Falls placed third and Pocatello placed fourth.

History is on the line for the girls individual state title. Roberts is one of six Idaho girls of any classification to win three consecutive state titles since the girls state meet began in 1974 and joins Twin Falls' Mattalyn Geddes as the only 4A girls to win three consecutive state titles.

She also owns eastern Idaho's fastest girls 5k time on record (17:31.8).

Only one Idaho runner, boy or girl, has ever won four individual cross country state titles: Pocatello's Elijah Armstrong from 2011-2014.

"I really want to be the first girl to win four state championships," Roberts said after a recent Skyline practice. 

She added that she again wants to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals and place in the top 10 there. 

After winning her third consecutive 4A state titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 and placing fourth in the 800 at 4A state track in May to contribute to Skyline's first girls track state title since 1993, Roberts took two weeks off before resuming running. Teammate and fellow senior Marina
Renna, who placed third at 2022 4A state cross country and fourth in the 3,200 and fifth in the 1,600 at 4A state track in May, took two and a half weeks off.

Roberts continued to run when not in town and has also been trail running this summer at various locations in eastern Idaho such as the Menan Buttes and Palisades.

"It's hard to get up before everyone else and run," Roberts said.

"I like to find new places (when I run)," Renna said.

She added, with a laugh, "I've gotten lost on multiple occasions."

Renna's entire junior year was redemption after a sophomore year where she missed state cross country with strep throat and state track with a stress fracture. 

"I went six weeks without running (in summer 2022)," Renna said. "I didn't run again until July. My doctor told me I could only run a half mile a day a few times a week."

Renna said she is aiming for a sub-18 minute 5k time this season and improvement on last year's third place state finish in 18:24.2. Her personal best last season was 18:20.

"I wasn't super thrilled with my state time last year," Renna said. 

Roberts said she will not be running in every meet on Skyline's schedule this year. Last year, she was on the verge of an overtraining injury and took 18 days off before the 4A District 6 championships. She and Renna said the meets they most look forward to this season are the Tiger-Grizz Invitational on Sept. 8 in Idaho Falls, Bob Firman on Sept. 23 in Boise and Hole in the Wall Invitational on Oct. 7 in Lakewood, Wash. For most of the Grizz runners who will participate in Hole in the Wall, it will be the first time they have flown out of state for a meet.

"We're taking seven boys, seven girls," Skyline head coach Sean Schmidt said. 

Teammates in cross country and track since Eagle Rock Middle School and classmates since elementary school, Roberts and Renna are still in disbelief about being seniors. They both said they have grown as people and as athletes while running for Skyline.

"I think running in general, there's a lot of mental strength," Roberts said. "More than anything, I feel like that type of grit will carry over into other aspects of my life."

"Just learning I can do hard things, also time managment," Renna said of what she's gained from cross country. "Being an upper level athlete and also having church commitments, family commitments."

On the boys side, Bishop Kelly graduated two of its state runners, runner-up Idaho Falls graduated three, third place Skyline graduated five and fourth place Pocatello graduated three. Schmidt added to keep an eye on Sandpoint this season.

The 4A boys individual title will be up for grabs as defending champion Matt Thomas of Blackfoot graduated and has continued his career at Oklahoma State.

Idaho Falls head coach Alan McMurtrey described the Tigers boys team as having good numbers and potential.

"The depth is one of our strengths, for sure," McMurtrey said. "We feel like we have some nice packs."

The returning Idaho Falls boys anticipate much competition for varsity on their team.

"I think we've got a lot of great experience coming back from last year," said junior Caleb Boyle, who medaled with 18th place at last year's 4A state meet.

"Our top five, there's gonna be a lot of competition," said senior Jaiden Liddle, who placed seventh at state last year. "It's gonna be hard to get one of those top five spots."

In addition to the collective goal of challenging Bishop Kelly for the 4A team title, the returning Idaho Falls boys said they have individual goals they'd like to achieve by the end of the season.

"Time wise, I'd hoping for 15:30," said senior Eli Byron. "I want to be with the team when we go to the big meets, pack up and stick together."

"Definitely low 15s, place first or second at state (as a team)," Liddle said. 

They added that they have learned a lot from the seniors who came before them.

"If you do the little things to be the best runner you can be, your results will be really strong," Boyle said.

Spending their high school careers as part of I.F. cross country has also allowed them to bond in several ways.

"Being able to talk to my teammates and open up and share stories, especially on long runs," Liddle said.

Senior Luke Athay, Idaho's 2021 5A boys individual cross country state champion and 2021 Eastbay (formerly Footlocker, now Champs) Nationals qualifier, has returned to the team this fall after missing his entire junior year due to a stress fracture sustained at the Arcadia Invitational in April 2022. After spending a total of five months in a non-weightbearing boot in summer and fall 2022 and learning the stress fracture did not heal properly, Athay and his parents decided in November 2022 to move forward with surgery. He had surgery in December 2022 and went from a cast and crutches to a walking boot and crutches before beginning physical therapy this spring. He completed physical therapy in early July, and biked, swam and eventually ran upon becoming weight-bearing. By late July, he worked up to running five miles.

"I started doing exercises probably late May, early June," Athay said at a recent practice.

While he does plan on racing this season, he will not do so right away. The biggest goal he has is to make it through a race without pain. Furthermore, McMurtrey has emphasized that he wishes for Athay to simply enjoy being with his team once again and not feel any pressure upon returning to racing.  

Idaho Falls, Skyline and Pocatello each claimed two trophies at the 2022 4A state meet.  

Jaycee Jensen, who placed 26th as a freshman at last year's 4A state meet, is Idaho Falls' top returning girl from 2022 upon the graduation of Elanor Eddington and Allison Lemons.

"Allie and Elanor, they were always teaching me everything they knew," Jensen said at a practice in early August. "I'd like to run in the low 18s, place in the top 10 which is a really big goal for me. I'd love for our team to get top five."

A handful of Idaho Falls runners will be competing at Nike Portland on Sept. 30 at Clackamas Community College in Oregon.

"It's gonna be at a new location," McMurtrey said. "It's nice to race some different teams and a different state. I'm pretty excited for those kids to do that on that week."

Class 3A

The 3A team titles went to new teams last season.

Kimberly snapped Sugar-Salem's seven-year title streak on the boys side to capture the title by 17 points over the Diggers. In the girls' race, Sugar-Salem flipped the script by beating Snake River by two points a year after taking second to Snake River by two points. 

Sugar-Salem head coach Brett Hill said he anticipates another nailbiter of a 3A girls state meet this fall.

"It's gonna be really close," Hill said. "Teton returns a really good group. South Fremont returns the two best girls in the district in (seniors) Sage Lyon and Mckenzie Winegar. The state's gonna be a lot of the same. It's gonna be a battle between us, Snake River, Teton and Coeur d'Alene Charter."

Sugar-Salem, Snake River and Teton, which placed third last year, each graduated two girls from last year's state runners while fourth place team Coeur d'Alene Charter graduated one.

In addition to returning runners including state medalists Hailey Dalling and Abigail Anderson, both juniors, Hill said the Diggers gained freshmen Janyja Jackson, a younger sister of 2022 graduate Jaresa Jackson, and Mckenzie Bean.

"Janyja, she was our No. 1 girl in (running camp) time trials," Hill said. "She's gonna surprise some people. Mackenzie Bean, she's really strong."

The girls individual title will be up for grabs as two-time defending champion McKenna Kozeluh of Coeur d'Alene Charter has graduated and is continuing her career at Idaho. Kozeluh's personal best 17:38 last season was an all-time Idaho 3A girls best for a 5k.

Sugar-Salem graduated two boys from last year's state runners. The Diggers return their top two finishers from state: junior Dylan Ball and senior Mason Smith.

"He wants to kind of prove himself and fill some big shoes," Sugar-Salem co-head coach Janson Jardine said of Ball.

The Diggers also have sophomore Andrew Galbraith back from injury that cut short his freshman season.

"He'll be a top 20 runner," Jardine said. 

Defending team champion Kimberly graduated two from last year's boys who ran at state, third place Fruitland graduated one and fourth place Timberlake graduated zero. Defending 3A boys individual state champion Jacob Barnhart of Timberlake is a senior this year.

"On paper, it almost looks like Timberlake is the favorite, then Kimberly and us," Hill said, adding that South Fremont and Fruitland also have strong returning runners. 

Class 2A

District 5 claimed both 2A state titles last year as West Side topped defending boys champion North Fremont by 14 points and Soda Springs, after back-to-back second place trophies, was victorious over Ririe by 18 points to return to the top of 2A for the first time since winning its all classification, all sport Idaho record 14th consecutive title in 2019.

"The two years we took second, we ran tight and didn't run our best at state," Soda Springs head coach Jeff Horsley said of the 2020 and 2021 state meets. "You have a streak of 14 in a row, for me it was easy to say, 'I don't care about that. Let's focus on this year.' I think the kids took pressure. Last year, there were kids who weren't part of the streak."

Three of Soda Springs' four medalists last season were underclassmen, including now senior Jinettie Garbett, who won the 200 and 400 titles at the 2A state track championships. Senior Macee Simmons, the youngest sibling in a family of runners, is also back after missing last season with an ACL tear. The Cardinals graduated one girl from its seven state runners from last season. 

"At the end of the day and the race is over and we know we gave our best effort, that's what I want to do," Horsley said. "I want to have no regrets and know we did our best on that day."

Soda Springs has faced some of its biggest competition from within its own district in recent seasons as well as from neighboring District 6. State runner-up Ririe had no seniors among its seven girls to run at last year's state meet, third place Malad graduated one and fourth place Declo graduated two. 

"Your toughest competition is gonna be from District 6 and District 5 with a few outliers," Horsley said. "That competition, it helps drive you and push you hopefully. It certainly is fun to be a part of."

The 2A girls individual title will be anyone's to claim this season as two-time defending champion Cameron Moore of the Ambrose School graduated. Firth's Kynzie Nielson, now a junior, placed second last year and is the top returning 2A girl. 

The boys side could see a shakeup in team trophies this season as last year's top four teams graduated a significant number of key contributors. West Side graduated three from their boys who ran at state, North Fremont graduated three, third place Soda Springs graduated four and fourth place Firth graduated three.

"We lost some great runners and it'll be interesting to see how the young guys respond," Horsley said. "It's definitely a rebuilding year for us." 

Keep an eye on District 3's Cole Valley Christian and Melba (fifth and sixth place last year, respectively), which graduated a combined two runners from last season and District 6's Ririe (seventh place last year), which graduated one.

Defending 2A boys individual state champion Corbin Johnston of North Fremont, now a junior, is back for the Huskies. Johnston won three gold medals (1,600, 3,200, medley relay) and one silver (800) at the 2A state track championships in May. Six of last year's top 10 boys finishers at 2A state cross country graduated.

Class 1A

Raft River, which placed second in 2021, won the 1A girls state title in 2022 with the lowest girls team score of the entire state meet (32 points). The Trojans had a repeat individual champion in Allie Black and had three seniors on their team, including sprinter and 1A state 200 record holder Libby Boden, who has continued her career at Idaho State. 

Raft River coaches Mike and Brooke Christensen said Black, now a senior, has college aspirations herself. They added that they anticipate Challis junior Taylor Redick (fourth place last year) and Greenleaf Friends junior Anna Dixon (fifth place last year) to also contend well individually.

"She's really wanting to go on and run somewhere next year," Brooke said of Black. "She's been able to to run consistently well over the summer. She definitely has the goal of wanting to get that title again."

Ashlee Christensen, now a junior, is back after missing her sophomore season due to injury. Heidi Harper, now a senior, returns after missing a portion of her junior season with a hip injury and juniors Audrey Gilbert and Naomi Campbell are also back.

"Audrey Gilbert came alive at state," Mike said. "We did lose some key people and some really good teammates. We've got a good bunch. Never complain and work really hard."

"We've got some younger ones that can step up and fill those holes," Brooke added.

Mike and Brooke said they have 18 runners combined in their boys and girls programs, the most they've ever had. Raft River was able to host home track meets this past spring on a brand new rubberized asphalt track, and the Trojans did something new this summer by having a three-day running camp at Magic Mountain Resort.

"We've got a few new runners that have never run before at all," Mike said. "It's quite a learning curve."

Mike and Brooke anticipate strong competition from the Logos girls, who placed second last year. Logos graduated two from last year's state runners and their top two finishers, Sara Casebolt and Mari Calene, were both underclassmen. Third place Grace and fourth place Tri-Valley did not graduate any of their state runners. 

Victory Charter repeated as 1A boys team state champion and also had a repeat individual champion in Ian Stockett. The Vipers graduated three from last year's state champion team, including Ian Stockett. Victory Charter's Luke Stockett, now a senior, placed fourth last season and is the top returning 1A boy. 

Runner-up Rockland graduated four of last season's state runners, third place Grace graduated three and fourth place Valley graduated three.