The 5-foot-10, 125-pound senior authored a remarkable campaign, including a commanding victory by 10 seconds at the Nike Cross Southwest Regional Championships, winning in a time of 14:41.13 this past season. Simmons followed that up by leading the Cavemen to the team silver medal at the NXN Final. A two-time Gatorade award winner and the returning Gatorade National Player of the Year, he broke the 14:50 barrier a mind-boggling five times this season with four of those races occurring at high altitude. He clocked the nation’s fastest 3-mile (14:41.14) and 5K (14:44.0) among prep boys this season, won 10 races and broke six course records in 2023.
Simmons has maintained a 3.93 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at Brigham Young University this fall.
Having relocated from Idaho after sophomore year, Simmons has volunteered locally at the public library, reading to children during their weekly story hour. He remains extensively involved in his church youth group and its community service initiatives. While at Salmon High (Idaho) as a freshman and sophomore, he was a member of the audition-only school choir and performed and danced in the school musical Newsies, then served as the sound and light technician for a production of Beauty and the Beast. He served as vice president of his freshman class and as sophomore class president in addition to donating his time as an officer in a community drug free youth program. He has also volunteered many hours both chopping and stacking wood for the elderly and sand-bagging to protect against flooding. Simmons has organized fundraisers for both young people and the needy, providing meals for the homeless. In American Fork, he also works at a local running store.
