Idaho’s Halladay, Utah’s Raff claim Bob Firman titles

By Marlowe Hereford for DyeStat

BOISE, Idaho — The victories occurred with significantly different margins, but the enthusiasm was the same Saturday for Mountain View ID sophomore Lexy Halladay and Lehi UT senior Ryan Raff at the annual Bob Firman Invitational.

Halladay moved ahead in the home stretch of the Eagle Island State Park course after running earlier with the lead pack to win the girls elite race in 17 minutes, 37.8 seconds, falling forward on her hands and knees seconds after hitting the tape.

Halladay won by almost two full seconds over North Summit UT senior Sadie Sargent and Bozeman MT senior Camila Noe, who battled for second and third in a photo finish. According to the Idaho Statesman, Halladay is the first Bob Firman girls elite individual champion from Idaho since Eagle’s Liz Brandon in 2009.

Halladay entered Saturday having won by respective margins of 47 and 50 seconds in her two previous races this season in eastern Idaho. She and Mountain View coach Tracy Harris changed their approach for Bob Firman: staying with the lead pack, but not being the leader.

The plan came to fruition, and Halladay said she bided her time to make her move.

“At the beginning, we had a good solid pace,” Halladay said. “I felt so good at like the first mile and a half because I wasn’t by myself. When you’re by yourself, it’s just harder to push yourself. This race helped me get into a more uncomfortable zone, to be able to mentally stave it and to push myself.”

It was not only Halladay’s first Bob Firman girls elite individual title, but her first appearance at the meet since winning the 2014 middle school race as a seventh grader.

Mountain View tends to travel to Nike Portland XC Invite or Minnesota in late September, as was true last year with a trip to the Roy Griak Invitational that ended with a second-place team finish and a Halladay win in the gold division race.

This year’s September schedule did not have as much overlap, allowing the Mavericks to compete at Bob Firman for the first time in at least 11 years (per Harris) and provide a full-circle moment for Halladay.

“It’s just cool to come back and actually win it…it’s kind of weird to think about,” Halladay said with a laugh. “It’s super cool. As a little seventh grader I remember staying and watching the older races and seeing how they looked so big and how they’re running so fast.”

The trip to Eagle Island State Park — and the individual win — was equally rewarding to Harris.

“It is pretty special,” Harris said. “It’s also nice because we’re gonna be here (at Eagle Island State Park) three more times. The day was perfect, but the course was not. 17:30 on a course that slick was great.”

Sargent said the five- to 10-minute wait to learn who placed second was nerve racking, but she fulfilled her goal of placing in the top three.

“I wanted second so bad,” Sargent said.

Mountain View placed third in the girls elite team standings with a score of 186. Claremont CA, which had Sydney Hwang and Azalea Segura Mora finish in the top 15, won the team title, edging second-place Bozeman MT by a 137-140 margin.

Raff’s win was similar to Halladay’s early September victories. The Lehi senior was alone with the lead for much of the race and was untouched at the finish, winning in 15:11.2 with an eight-second gap over second-place Zach Winter of Fremont UT. 

“It was really hard to run by myself for a lot of the race and just have a lot of people behind yelling for the other guys to try and catch me,” Raff said. “They’re back there and they can close that gap if they push it.”

Raff last competed at Bob Firman two years ago, placing ninth. He credited Saturday’s race for reminding him that he can run with — and lead — other nationally ranked runners.

“It’s not gonna be anything new or anything too crazy when regionals and nationals come,” Raff said.

It was the first Bob Firman appearance for Winter, who said it was also his first time racing Raff.

“It was pretty tight until the last mile when my dad said, ‘You’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go. You’ve gotta go catch Ryan,’” Winter said. “I’m not disappointed with my time.”

Timpanogos won its second boys elite team championship in three years by a tiebreaker over Utah rival Springville.

The teams had identical scores of 96, but Timpanogos’s sixth runner had a higher finish than Springville’s sixth runner. Central Valley WA was third with 137.