Bob Firman Invitational Cross County meet returns to Eagle Island State Park

The Bob Firman brings more than 3,000 runners from 147 different schools across nine different states to Eagle Island State Park for one of the biggest cross country meets in the region.

However, this meet has not happened the last two years because of the pandemic so runners were more than ready to give it all they had on this 5K course.

"Each year we have been training so hard for it, preparing ourselves, but it’s been cancelled," said Landon Heemeyer of Rocky Mountain. "So having it this year is such a blessing and we are so excited to be back."

Rocky Mountain is the defending state champs and they were impressive winning the overall elite division, Heemeyer finished first with a time 14:58.4, Rocky looks at Eagle Island as their home course.

It's our fortress and every day we run here and fortify it," said Heemeyer. "We prepare to defend it when 150 teams come, we have our plan and we were ready."

In the girls elite division, Boise Brave finished third as Samantha Smith finished fourth overall with Allie Bruce finishing tenth, two teams from Utah finished first and second.

here is a link to all the results from the Bob Firman Invitational Cross Country Meet.

We also talked with the parents who told us cross country has been instrumental for their children during the pandemic, plus cross country meets force the coaches, the parents and even the media to run if they want to see the action.

"That’s the best part we have to go back and forth," said Gerd Uitdewilligen, one of the Rocky Mountain parents. "It's a super team with super coaching, but more importantly there are over 100 kids all running at their own capacity."

The high school running season culminates with the state championship meet on October 29 in Lewiston and the teams will be back at Eagle Island for the NRX Northwest Regional on November 12.