Eagle Valley Boys Eke One Out At Home
Mason Norman opens an early lead as Eagle Valley sets up shop behind him.
There were two stories--very different stories--in the boys race. There was the individual story and the team story. Precious little tied those two stories together.
Individually, Mason Norman managed a wire-to-wire win. There was nothing dramatic about it. Norman took the lead on the long fairway that serves as the start of the race and was never threatened thereafter. In fact, it wasn't long before the field was very nearly out of shouting distance. Norman's 16:01 set a new course record and was his second consecutive Eagle Valley title.
Wyatt Mortenson of Moffat County took up second place, some 30+ seconds back. For the record, Mortenson's second place was very nearly a wire-to-wire affair as well. We'll give Mortenson, conservatively, something like 4500 meters of distance spent in second. Norman's teammate Nathan Bone just missed breaking 17 minutes in third.
All three times were very nice times on a course with lots of grass and an ever-present north-to-south slope.
With two in the top three, you may be tempted to think The Classical Academy also had the team scoring in hand. But they didn't. Not quite.
Eagle Valley strategically sprinkled their finishers in the top 20 so that it never quite looked like they had the upper hand. Devils can be sneaky that way.
Carter Baker's long wavy, golden hair was perhaps most obvious in fourth. Skip a few places and you have Bailey Beckum in 7th, then--almost when you've forgotten what color Eagle Valley was wearing--John Papadopolous comes across the line in 15th. Followed by Gage Nielsen in 18th and Luke Morrissey in 19th.
And all this time... no Titans. The next wave of Titans wasn't long in coming. In fact, they took places 20, 21, and 22. But it was too late. Eagle Valley edged The Classical Academy for the team title, 63-67.
And that might remind you a little of how things worked last year, though not nearly as much so as what happened in the girls race.