Week in Review: Meets through Thursday

Zack Retzlaff led a very strong Pueblo West team at the Doherty Spartan Invitational. Photo by Alan Versaw.

To help manage the weekend load here, I'm splitting the week-in-review article into two pieces.

And, without any further ado, let's start discussing some great cross country action that took place earlier this week.

Adidas Doherty Spartan Cross Country Invitational

Weather-wise, it was not one of those glorious cross country afternoons. But the racing more than made up for any shortfalls left by the meteorological conditions.

The boys race featured a showdown between the top-three ranked 4A teams--Coronado, Pueblo West, and The Classical Academy. Pueblo West got the best of this one and looked very good doing it. Palmer Ridge also dropped a few hints that they don't mean to be forgotten in this affair.

If you missed the end of the girls race, you missed a lot. Ali Deitsch made up substantial ground on Aubrey Till in the final 400 meters for the win.

You can find a lot more news in the article linked below.

On-Site Coverage

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights

Dakota Ridge Cross Country Invitational

Louis Hood added one to his list of wins at this one. And Arapahoe had very much the look of a top team, taking a 37-57 win over Dakota Ridge. Both schools got a little greedy, shoving three finishers each into the top ten. Carson Hume of Dakota Ridge took second, and Carter Prescott of D'Evelyn was the first non-Warrior/Eagle to place.

And, remember Lexi Reed? The girl who was setting Colorado cross country on its ear early in the season? She's back--and with a vengeance. 18:34 wins this race by almost 20 seconds. I'm guessing Ms. Reed already owns the top spot on the D'Evelyn girls all-time list.

It may have been a bit of a surprise for a few folks, though, when Discovery Canyon took the team title out of Arapahoe's hands. And, Arapahoe had Mandee Middleton running varsity for the first time this season. DCC could be a 4A sleeper.

And, if you sneak a peak into the middle school results, you may want to mark the names of Landon Rast and Allie Chipman (I think we've mentioned her before). They'll be coming back to this venue for the middle school state championships in two short weeks.

On-Site Coverage

Girls Highlights

John Martinez Mercury Classic

You know you're a legend when you have both a track meet and a cross country meet named after you. Yes, the man in the sequined hats--John Martinez himself.

Dan Mordecai made this one a home-town win for Brighton, and the Bulldogs put the bite on the team competition as well. Leonela Solano led the girls to a strikingly similar outcome.

Noah Munson and Josephine Atkinson made it a clean sweep of the middle school titles for Sacred Heart of Jesus. Look for these two as well at the middle school state championships--these were pretty nice times they turned in on the Adams County Fairgrounds!

Kent Denver Sun Devil Invite

Ah, yes, the one meet in the state I know of where they make the middle school contingent run a full 5K. That's worth a round of applause. 

Responding to your round of applause was Quinn McConnell, a 7th-grade girl out of Peak to Peak Middle School. I'm guessing Richey Hansen is doing all he ethically can to keep her in the house. You might want to check out her profile page to see what she's accomplished beyond this meet. Oh, and Peak to Peak is pretty well loaded behind McConnell as well. The Puma just might be the cat of the future.

Ben Butler more or less destroyed the field in the high school boys race, but Kent Denver more than had things in control in the team tally. SkyView Academy had second, but it was a more distant second than 13 points would normally indicate.

KD also snagged the upper hand in the girls race, but by a very narrow margin over a short-handed Colorado Academy team. In any case, KD and CA occupied each of the top 11 places at this meet.

Going full circle to put Quinn McConnell's mark into perspective, she ran 1:07 faster than the winner of the high school race, assuming they ran the same course.

La Junta Cross Country Invitational

Not even a government shut-down of non-essential services could stop this meet. Rocky Ford is about as close to La Junta as Bent's Old Fort, and Rocky Ford's course was very much available for the date. Problem solved.

Rocky Ford apparently enjoyed running on their home course as they easily won the team title and Rhett Hinkle and Adan Munoz put a 1-3 finish on the board. Gage Mayo of La Junta split the pair up, but finished well behind Hinkle's 17:23.

Brenna Vallejos of Lamar took the girls title in 22:31.

Mile High League Cross Country Meet

Apparently, Alexander Dawson has a new Mondo cross country course. Check out the times posted at this meet!

The sisters Rairdon justified my preseason confidence in them by going 1-2 and posting a pair of sub-20s. If HCA gets a third here, watch out! For now, though, Resurrection Christian is the local power, scoring 4-5-6 with Rachel Meyers, Kyra Hanson, and Hannah Hart.

Denver Academy's Andy O'Dell glided to an easy win in the boys race, stopping the clock in 16:26. Liberty Common took a narrow win over Heritage Christian Academy in a battle of Fort Collins schools in the team scoring.

Meet Results

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights

Pat Amato- Frosh/Soph Only

Normally, you think of a freshman-sophomore meet as a non-varsity affair, but if you thought that about this meet, you would have been dead wrong. 

The girls race was dominated in low-19 fashion by Catherine Liggett and Kacey Doner, two seasoned veterans who've seen a lot of the front of the field in regular varsity races.

Rocky Mountain's Bryan Hird won the boys race with a solid 16:44.

Meet Results

Girls Highlights