2A-3A Girls: Denver North's Turn to Make a Statement
Nobody had given Denver North much attention this season. As it turns out, that was a serious miscalculation.
The foursome of Isla Anderson, Esther Cornish, Laura Romero, and Amelia Gardner went to the front early and hard. And, they very nearly blew the race wide open.
But for Helen Cross, Georgia Barone, and Shannon King, they might have done exactly that. As the Viking foursome put greater and greater space between themselves and body of the field, it was these three who kept the element of mystery in the eventual finish order alive.
Eventually, the Denver North peloton broke up, and as that was happening, it was Shannon King who moved up to challenge North's Romero for the lead. The last half of the race ended up as a duel between King and Romero that really wasn't decided until the final 150 meters when King's final sprint withered Romero's hopes.
Meanwhile, the brisk early pace exacted a bit of a toll on the other three Vikings. Cross maintained her position and was able to pick off all but Romero in the second half of the race. TCA's Kaylee Thompson, who had bided her time early in the race, passed everyone else and was even closing a little on King and Romero before the race was over.
Still, under the score-4 format of the race, Denver North made their early lead stick. Romero was followed by Anderson, was followed by Cornish, was followed by Gardner. And 24 points was easily the low tally of the day. If Denver North has another in that league who was off taking the ACT test on Saturday, then the Vikings just established themselves as yet another very solid 3A Girls entry. As it was on Saturday, North's advantage would have mostly evaporated to TCA and Lyons had the scoring gone to five.
Team-wise, the rest of the field never presented a serious threat to any of Denver North, TCA, and Lyons.