Forget the upcoming elections, it's championship season in Colorado high school cross country!
Results have been trickling in all week, and it's time to take stock of what we've seen thus far.
Starting things off up in Parker was the newly-formed Pioneer League meet. On the girls side, Discovery Canyon pushed aside Vista Ridge in a mild surprise for the girls title. The Thunder used a 3-4-5 finish from Janae Johnson, Allie Morgan, and Molly Spalding to set up the victory. On the boys' side, Palmer Ridge edged Legend for the title, though the race was too close to call on the basis of exit polling.
On the same day, Joseph Manilafasha was scorching the field at the Denver Public Schools championship with a 14:58. Matt Bell of George Washington may have been in sight, but the rest of the field was nowhere to be seen when Denver North's ace crossed the line. Lillie Toaspern of Denver East was the candidate of choice on the girls side.
On Wednesday, it was the Centennial League Championship. Walter Schafer won the individual title and his fellow Bruins played strong supporting roles in securing the team title for Cherry Creek. Mullen had a strong 4-5-7-8-10 to easily put away the girls field. Of note was the fact that Arapahoe slipped by Cherry Creek for second, despite the fact that Clare Gallagher made it a 2-for-2 sweep of the individual titles for Cherry Creek, a school that isn't sure whether it's a red school or a blue school.
On Thursday, attention traveled south of Colorado Springs to the CS Metro League Championship at the Fountain-Fort Carson High School precinct. And there we found Allie McLaughlin up to her old tricks--this time running away from the field to the tune of 17:27. The closest 5A competitor, Lynnea Sjoerdsma of Doherty, was nearly two minutes in arrears. Team titles went to Rampart by a hair over Coronado and Palmer in 5A boys, Doherty by a healthy margin over Palmer in 5A girls, Cheyenne Mountain by a country mile in 4A girls, and Falcon by another sizeable chunk of real estate in 4A boys. Dani Grossman was impressive in winning the 4A girls individual title. Kevin Johnson and Wes Rickman more or less shared the 4A boys title (first place did go to Johnson), a full minute ahead of third.
Several league championship meets took place on Friday. In Florence, The Classical Academy swept the Tri-Peaks League team titles, but it was Joseph DeMoor of Buena Vista and Kara Slavoski, below, of St. Mary's running essentially uncontested races for the individual titles. "Landslides" they call them.
Also in 3A, Colorado Academy edged Faith Christian by a mere three electoral votes for the boys team title at the 3A Metro League meet. Amazingly, the two schools claimed 10 of the top 11 places in the boys race. With each passing week, Peak to Peak looks a little more like the contender they were last year. This time, they ran the field over for a convincing girls team title. Jhenya Nahreini and Kayla Whitehead posted a 1-2 finish in the individual standings to put an exclamation point on the victory.
Also in Friday's action, the massive Jefferson County League meet was hosted by Dakota Ridge High School. Dakota Ridge, led by a 1-2 finish by the brothers Appel, easily won the boys title. Thoughts of a sweep of the team titles, however, were put to rest by Green Mountain. The Rams gained control of the Jeffco house for the first time since 1992 on the strength of a 2-3 finish by Andi Carpenter and Renuka Jain. Paige Lillo of Dakota Ridge won the 5A girls title on her home turf. 4A team titles went to Wheat Ridge and Evergreen. The Wheat Ridge effort was paced by Dart Schwaderer and running mate Scott Fauble, while Evergreen was led by Bryn Haebe (at left, photo by Cliff Jurgens), who just may have won more run-offs than anyone in the state so far this season.
There have been several notable MIAs already this week. Include the entire Liberty boys and girls varsity teams, Sam Feldotto, Kaitlin Hanenburg, and Shelby Stableford of The Classical Academy, Ben Velasquez of La Junta, and Kaitie Vanatta and Natosha Rogers of Dakota Ridge on that list. By my records, Rogers last ran at Liberty Bell. Doubtless there have been others missing as well that have escaped my attention (not an especially difficult feat). Expect most, if not all, to be back on the campaign trail next week.