2A-3A Boys: Roberts with More Room to Spare this Time Around
It was leadership by committee. It was that way on the first circuit. It was that way on the second circuit. And it remained that way on much of the third circuit.
The suspects were the usual suspects. Guys like Campbell McDonough and Macklin Brockmeyer of Faith Christian, Isaac Roberts of Lyons, Ryan Lehmuth of Jefferson Academy, Finn Tierney of Estes Park, Andrew King of Platte Valley, and William Ledden of Peak to Peak all hung around the lead, waiting for someone else to make themselves the sacrificial lamb in the heat of the day.
For the longest time, nobody did. Then, finally, Isaac Roberts had enough of it all. With a little less than a half mile to go, Roberts made the definite break. And nobody had the legs left to go with him.
For the second year in a row, Roberts won his home meet. This time around, though, there was no drama of a sprint across the football field to the finish. By the time Roberts hit the football field, the outcome was settled. Lehmuth, Ledden, and King followed, in order.
Faith Christian was expected--at least by this writer--to dominate the day's team scoring. But, somebody forgot to hand that script to Lyons. Or, maybe Lyons got wind of that script and decided to write a new one.
In any case, the Lions dumped the Eagles for the team title, and would have dumped them again had the team scoring gone to five.
And, it was some late work that handed Lyons the team title. While Isaac Roberts spent the entire race until the final half mile trading strides with the lead pack, it was the quiet work--and especially late work--by the rank-and-file guys behind him that secured the team title.
Field Soosloff eventually rose to 8th, Simon Stone to 12th, and Colton Jonjak-Plahn to 14th. Faith Christian matched that very nicely through #3 but couldn't close the deal at #4.
And so Lyons went home as champions at their own meet. They've done that a time or two before.