Photos by Dennis Webb—Heidi Acosta applauds for classmates Sunday at Rifle High School’s graduation. Acosta said she worried about her prospects for graduating after getting poor grades her freshman year. But she buckled down with encouragement from teachers and her parents, and will go on to college, with plans to study youth education.BELOW: Rifle graduate Parker Peterson demonstrates the power of a newly received diploma. Commencement speakers invoked humor Sunday, and hit a somber note in remembering a class member who died last year after contracting the flu.