Duels In The Snowflakes
For those who hung around to witness them--and that's a small percentage of the massive crowd on hand at the beginning of the meet--both late afternoon 3200s produced some of the best racing of the day.
The girls 3200 very quickly narrowed itself down to Lina Corrales of Douglas County and Layla Roebke of Coronado. And, both girls came in staring down the very troubling issue of 5A state qualifying in the event.
After yesterday's racing, it takes an 11:22 to qualify for State in the 5A Girls 3200. Neither Corrales nor Roebke quite made it there, but they did give it a stirring, back-and-forth go.
Corrales set the pace through the first mile, keeping things on pace to produce a qualifier. Whether Corrales lost a step midway or Roebke sensed a need to take over and push the pace, there came a time midway through the race where Roebke took over the lead.
That, however, only seemed to jolt Corrales out of a lull. Within a lap, Corrales was back in the lead and, shortly thereafter, pulling away from the Coronado sophomore.
Corrales continued to increase her lead through the final lap, eventually winning with a time of 11:33.04 to Roebke's 11:43.17. Roebke's final time, however, marked a 7-second PR and a better than 30-second improvement on her season best.
With the wind down, the boys were anxious to get their 3200 underway as well before the weather had any time to change its mind.
Much like the girls, the boys race quickly narrowed down to two--this time Douglas County's Brock Helvey and Palmer's Awet Beraki.
The lead switched back and forth between the two a time or two, but Helvey seemed content to let Beraki lead, and Beraki seemed content to shoulder that responsibility.
Meanwhile, a pack of Luke Thurman, Mason Norman, Michael Long, Walker Rudolph, and Matthew Arbegast jostled for position behind Beraki and Helvey. There are 120 possible permutations of the order of five runners, and I'm pretty certain they found at least 100 of those permutations over the course of eight laps.
Late in the race, Beraki opened a little space on Helvey and would eventually take the win in 9:52.39 to Helvey's 9:55.45.
Meanwhile, the chase pack closed a little ground on Beraki and Helvey over the last two laps. In the end, it was Mason Norman who took chase pack honors in 10:01.06. If you keep score on this kind of thing at home, that gives Norman #4 position among Colorado freshmen in the 3200 this spring. So far, only Cole Sprout and Easton Allred have broken through the 10-minute barrier.