Brokaw, Central boys win Wyoming Invite title
Sep. 3—CHEYENNE — Bridger Brokaw placed second at the 2022 Wyoming Invitational after leading for much of the race. He surrendered the lead in the final 50 meters of the 5-kilometer race.
The Cheyenne Central senior had a different strategy during Saturday's edition of the cross-country meet at Little America Golf Course in Cheyenne. Brokaw and his Indians teammates ran together in a group for a little more than half the race before they started their surged.
Brokaw eventually pulled away from the pack and won in 16 minutes, 15.5 seconds. Central sophomore Race Morrell was the runner-up at 16:21.5.
Senior Jonah Rigg took ninth (16:53.4) and classmate Trevor Schmidt took 13th (17:03.5) to help the Indians win the team title. Central finished with 107 team points, while runner-up Fossil Ridge of Fort Collins, Colorado, had 123.
"I was confident in my kick and my finish, but I didn't take the lead until there was about a mile-and-a-half left," Brokaw said. "It was right around when we reached the second hill. I thought I'd try to chill until we were about halfway done and go from there."
Central's girls placed fifth as a team, led by senior Emma Hofmeister's 17th-place time of 20:20.
"I try to not get too down on myself, but I wish I could have gotten a better time," Hofmeister said. "I started feeling a little sick and told myself to keep pushing. I tried to follow my coach's advice when he was telling us, 'Push up this hill,' 'Surge here,' 'Go get that girl,' and things like that.
"I pulled everything out of the toolbox I could and did the best I could. I wish I could have gotten a better time, but I'm proud of how I did under the circumstances."
While the college portion of the meet was contested under a decent amount of cloud cover, the skies were clear by the time the high-schoolers took the course. That meant competing on a course with two steep hills with temperatures in the low 80s.
It wasn't an ideal situation for Laramie's Dominic Eberle who considered withdrawing from Saturday's race after he woke up feeling like he had a head cold. Eberle decided to give it all he could and still placed 14th in 17:09.2 to help the Plainsmen finish 10th as a team with 284 points.
"It wasn't a very good race for me at all, but the team needed me," Eberle said. "I felt really heavy, really nauseous and like I might throw up. That happens sometimes.
"I kept going and giving it my best. I kept telling myself, 'I know this hurts really bad and you're not doing very well, but keep going.'"
Laramie's girls were eighth in the 23-team varsity field thanks, in part, to a 12th-place effort from freshman Lainey Berryhill.
"This was a hard course, and there was a lot of competition, but we did pretty good as a team," said Berryhill, who finished in 19:59.9. "It's very hilly and was kind of hot. We tried to stay together, and we've done a good job of working together as a team, and that's really helped us."
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Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on X at @jjohnke.
