Judd And Hemmerlin Spearhead Their Teams In Mesa
On the second day of district week, the Mesa City Meet was held Thursday morning next to Red Mountain High School's campus at Red Mountain Park.
In the boys' varsity race, Tatum Jelleberg (Skyline, Sr.) held a strong lead through the majority of the race. Over the last half mile, Matt Judd (Mesa Mountain View, Sr.) threw down the gauntlet to take over the lead and seize the individual victory. Thomas Sewell (Red Mountain) finished second, followed by Jelleberg.
Matt's younger brother Joshua edged out Jacob Doest (Skyline) to finish fourth and fifth and scored another four points for the Mesa Mountain View Toros. Kevin Degroff and Brady Eager scored another six and seven points respectively, while Aiden Tinen finished as the eighth and final boy under 17-minutes.
Jaxon Mills came through for 11th place as the fourth man for Skyline, but thanks to freshman Mark Anderson, the Toros were able to shut it down with a total of 30 points. The Toros' 20-year streak was extended once more.
Jade Boyles, Niki Hemmerlin and Rachel Early led the way for the girls' varsity field early on. Before we knew it Hemmerlin, had broken away from the competition and ran the lead all the way to the endzone, over twenty seconds ahead of runner-up Jade Boyles.
Taylor Jacobs finished third place for Red Mountain, followed by Rachel Early of the Dobson Mustangs.
Ariel Fendenheim, Kate Brockman, Brenna Bourgeois finished 5th, 7th and 10th to complete a total of 26 points. Within a spread of just over two minutes between Hemmerlin and Bourgeois, the Red Mountain Lions secured their third consecutive Mesa City Meet Title; a feat accomplished by only one other team in Red Mountain's history from about thirty years ago.