Local jump ropers mourn the loss of teen killed in plane crash

IDAHO FALLS -- VO: Mackenzie Ruston loved to jumprope. In fact, she’s won tons of awards.

VO: When news hit of 17-year-old Mackenzie Ruston being killed in a plane crash near Palisades Reservoir, Monica Foster was stunned.

Foster’s the coach of the ProForm Airborne jump rope team in Idaho Falls. She met Mackenzie years back at a jump rope workshop.

SOT: "Kenzie was an exceptional jumper, she was always in the top on all of her individual events, team events. At the World Jump Rope Championships this last year in Paris she came away with several trophies,” Foster says.

VO: Mackenzie was a team captain of Chapel Hill’s Bouncing Bulldogs jump rope team in North Carolina, but she was more than just a remarkable jumper.

SOT: "Kenzie was somebody that lived life to their fullest. She was patient, kind, one of the best staffers I’ve ever observed... She was always willing to help anybody,” Foster says.

VO: Foster says she and the team are deeply saddened by Mackenzie’s death, but know she’s always be remembered.

SOT: "We want to support the Bouncing Bulldog team however will be appropriate. Anything that might be put forth we want to be in full support of,” Foster says.

SOT: “Kenzie’s life doesn’t end here, because her legacy will live on through jump rope,” Foster said.

VO: I’m Natalia Hepworth, EastIdahoNews.com