Fountain-Ft. Carson Defends Home Turf
Tara Durbin found her way to the front, then stayed there.
Usually "defending home turf" is more a figure of speech than something literal, but in this case we may invest it with literal meaning. There's as much grass as anything on the FFC cross country course, so defending home turf is an apt description of what the Trojans did today.
Claire Nowels took the lead early for the Trojans, but it was Tara Durbin who finished the job, winning in 21:56. After about three-quarters of a mile, Durbin did nothing but expand her lead.
Providing some measure of challenge to the dominance of Fountain-Ft. Carson blue up front was the green of Pueblo County. Brennah Guerrero and Alina Bartosz nailed down places three and four for the Hornets and, at least temporarily, gave the Trojans something to think about.
The thinking part of it didn't last long, however, as Kendall Nolan crossed in fifth, Kyndra Krieg in eighth, and Ana Maender in ninth to finish the Fountain-Ft. Carson scoring. For the record, FFC's 23 team points is an unbeatable team score.
Pueblo County would take second with 60 points.
Ayauna Smith of Harrison was the top finisher not wearing blue or green. Smith took sixth. Benisa Ellis of Springfield held up the small-school end of the bargain with a seventh-place finish. Ellis was decked out in full-length spandex for the race, an apparel choice that never even occurred to any of the Colorado Springs-area contestants. Evidently, things have been superlatively toasty in Springfield this fall.