Coach decided to rest the top 5 Varsity runners, so Rockwell got to run Varsity at the TwiKnight Invitational. He was so excited to run a Varsity race. He said he just wanted to be able to say he ran Varsity as a Freshman, and that nobody needed to have the context that it was because the top 5 kids weren't running. Haha!
Paul and I were pleasantly surprised to see Rockwell and Grant come by in the front half of the pack. We weren't sure what to expect, but these two Freshman boys were holding their own for sure!
Rockwell came around the final stretch in a group of 4 boys.
He kicked it and was able to pass the other 3!
He finished strong again!!
Rockwell set a goal for the season to beat 18 minutes. He finished this race in 17:36.84!!!!! He crushed his goal! Congratulations Rockwell!!
He took 136th place out of 291 total boys. The team was told that this race was what determined which athletes got to go to the Bob Firman Invitational in Idaho the next weekend. He wanted to qualify so bad. The top 5 runners who rested this week are going, and then the top 7 Timp boys from this Varsity race were supposed to get to go as well.
Rockwell was the 5th Timp boy to finish so he, and everyone else, thought he would get to go to Idaho. He was sure excited. He spent all weekend just thrilled that he qualified and looking forward to a fun trip with the team.
Coach pulled Rockwell aside at practice on Monday and told him that he was going to let Wyatt go to Idaho in place of Rockwell. He said Wyatt's a senior and has usually been one of their top runners, but with an injury this year he hasn't been able to keep up with the varsity team. He said he wanted to let him go since this is his last year, and Rockwell will have other opportunities to go since he's a freshman. Rock was so disappointed. He felt a lot of different emotions over the next two weeks. He said he understood that it's been disappointing for Wyatt having an injury, and that Wyatt's such a nice kid that he was okay with him getting to go. He was confused why Coach didn't have Wyatt take the place of the #12 runner instead of the #10 runner though. But when he looked at the times and realized the #12 runner was Coach's son, then he got more frustrated. A lot of the older boys on the team, and one of the other coaches, found a time to run with Rockwell at practice over the next week and told him they thought it wasn't cool at all that he was cut from the race and how impressed they were that he had qualified. Rockwell appreciated them saying that, but at the same time it fueled his frustration. It was hard for Paul and me to watch him go through this, and to feel a lot of the same frustrations he was feeling. It was hard to see him go from such a high finishing with such a huge PR and earning a spot on the varsity team as a Freshman, to such a low. He's in a much better place now and has been able to move on, but that was a hard thing for him.
