By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
It’s possible no team has seen more meet cancellations than Panorama cross country this season (except for maybe nearby ACGC). The state has experienced one of its wettest months in recorded history, and cross country teams and courses have paid the price. Even still, that has done little to slow down Kylie Rochholz and her historic senior campaign.
Rochholz has been a staple on both Panorama’s track and field team as a long distance runner and the cross country team since she was a freshman. In 2023 she finished ninth at the state meet. Ninth. As a freshman. Only four freshmen in total placed in the top 20, and only one other freshman finished above her at the biggest race of the season. She stepped back a bit the following season, finishing 14th at state, but, again, this was still impressive for any sophomore. Her junior year season was hampered with injury woes, causing her to miss the state meet and robbing her of being a four-time qualifier.
There’s little doubt that Rochholz would have qualified for state last season had she been healthy. Despite fighting those injuries, she placed 16th at the conference meet. If you take her time of 21:26 at the conference meet and put it into the state-qualifying meet where she would have ran, Rochholz would have finished 12th. I understand courses vary greatly, and times are not universal, but, despite her ailments, she was putting together solid races. Panorama still raced well overall at that meet, placing fourth. But, a healthy Rochholz performance likely would have sent them to state once more.
Rochholz had the summer to get healthy and return with a vengeance, and that she did. She won the Southeast Valley Invite in the first race of the season, but immediately she and the rest of the Panthers had to deal with three straight meet cancellations. Rochholz shows up for the ACGC meet and places second, finishing in 19:06 — a new school record for any female at any cross country race.
Thought that was good? Well, just four days later at the Ogden meet, Rochholz wins the meet in 18:51, absolutely crushing the school record she just set herself. Want to know a fun fact? Rochholz finished one place ahead of the only other freshman who had a better time than her at the 2023 state meet, Madelyn Grothus of Madrid, on both of those record-setting runs. How cool is that? Two of the best runners in 1A have been battling it out for the top spot for four years.
Even coming off of an injury-plagued junior year, and dealing with three cancelled meets this season, in just three races, Rochholz has produced two wins, one second-place finish, set a school record, and then broke her own record.
Panorama will run again in the Jim Klein Invitational next week, then at the West Central Activities Conference shortly after that, then the state qualifier. It will be fun to see if Rochholz can keep up the break-neck pace she has been on this season through the end of the year.
If that wasn’t cool enough for this Panorama and ACGC sports follower, the Chargers, just a few miles down the road, have an eighth grader consistently placing inside the top 10 at meets. When Rochholz graduates this year, it looks like Vivian Crawford will take the reins from her as one of the area’s most dominant runners, likely emulating the successes that Ava Campbell had in her years as an ACGC runner. I am consistently amazed at the athletic talent that comes from this area of Guthrie County.
Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.