On October 28 2025, Highland’s boys and girls cross country teams competed in State at Sugar House Park. With the course being a total of three miles long, both of these teams gave everything they had to finish strong with the last race of the season.
The girls team placed 6th overall in state with all of the girls finishing in under 22 minutes and the boys finished 23rd in state all getting sub 20 times. Laurie Humbert, the Highland girls cross country coach, was awarded Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year.
This team had a great season overall. At regions, the girls team got 2nd place, only four points behind the winner. And the boys got 8th in region. Both teams fought hard every meet to get to the state level. Although the team struggled in a few races and placed lower than they had hoped, overall, they continued to progress throughout the season.
The Highland Cross Country team placed third in the All City meet this year. This race is always fun for the runners because their varsity and JV teams run together to compete against the other teams in the region to bring home the All City Trophy. Even though they didn’t win the race, they continued to grow as a team and build their skills learning from this meet.
“Even though we didn’t win All City, I feel like we still did good,” Maddie Reeder, a Highland junior, said. “Our team was improving a lot.”
The boys goal this season was just to make it to State. They worked as hard as they could and were able to qualify.
Roman Remke, a highland sophomore, was the first Highland boy to cross the finish line with a time of 18:12, and Benji Danse was close behind at 18:26.
The Sugar House course is not for the faint of heart; with so many hills, this course can be a real challenge for many runners. Some like to push themselves and pass other athletes on the hills. But for others, the hills can be the worst part. Highland was able to push through this tough terrain and do well throughout the course.
“I actually like the hills,” Jack Scullion, a Highland senior and varsity runner said. “It gives you space to pass people and makes the race more entertaining rather than running a straight three miles.”
The girls team truly delivered with a great performance overall from their varsity runners.
The star of the team this year was Reeder, winning both Region and State. Her time was 17:28 a personal record for the season.
“It was a really fun race,” Reeder said.
Reeder is now looking forward to the track season running in the 3200, 1600, and 800 events. She hopes to stay healthy and to continue improving her time in each of these races.
Highland girls’ and boys’ teams performed so well at state; it was a great end to the 2025-26 cross country season.
“I’m sad that I’m not going to be able to do another one of these races,” Danse said. “But I am happy that we made it to this point and all had a good season.”
