Top Moment of the Meet (2)
Colorado Track XC file photo by Jeff McCoy.
There was an upset in the girls action as well, but it certainly wouldn't happen for the individual title -- not with Brie Oakley on the course. Oakley, the recent Cal signee, wasted no time in reminding spectators why Flotrack plugged her as the #1 female in the country just a few days ago.
As if on cue, amidst the pre-race buzz in the crowd regarding Oakley, she immediately shot to the front and wasted little time charging to a sizable lead. As we've seen with a few other phenoms that have graced Colorado cross country courses over the years, it's almost as if there are two different races occurring at once -- Brie against herself and the clock, and everyone else against themselves. So it goes, Oakley ran away from the field in route to a 70 second victory with and outstanding time of 17:28.
The battle for second between Cherry Creek's rounding-into-form Devon Peterson and the vastly improved Caroline Robbins from Grandview was intense. It held epic team title ramifications as well. The two were back and forth, around and around the Highline Canal. Peterson finally nudged away over the final meters to secure a one second advantage, and more importantly one fewer point. She received strong support from teammates Victoria Hall in 5th and Hannah Mimmack in 10th who respectively had their best races of the season.
Arapahoe placed Morgan Conn and Allison Marizza in the top ten to make it a three way team race. While Cherokee Trail's Caitlin McConnell and Jordan Herrera produced low points for the Cougars as well. It sounds strange, given that Creek was second in state to Broomfield last fall, but it was in fact graduation-depleted Cherry Creek that pulled the upset over the higher ranked teams from Grandview and Arapahoe. Thus, the final tally read Cherry Creek 49, Grandview 51, and Arapahoe 53.