The 3A Colorado State Recap: Wilburn Rises, Allori Dominates

Chandler Wilburn was feeling all the vibes. 

The Classical Academy senior had raced at the 3A Colorado State Championships all four years of high school. 

And for the first time, in his last go at Penrose, he got to enjoy the final strides with absolutely no one in front of him. 

 A smile stretched across his face as his arms stretched out in victory before pointing to the "TITANS" logo across his chest. 

He had finished 25th at a freshman, 17th as a sophomore, fourth as a junior, and now as a senior, he was finally the State Champion.

The TCA senior ran 15:46 for a six-second victory over Logan Gullett, who once again finished as the runner-up here, crossing the finish line in 15:52.

While the finish held all the woe and joy of running, the early miles were where the sorting out took place. 

Defending state champion Matthew Edwards took the early pacing duties to insure this would be no wild-kick finish. 

The TCA duo of Edwards and Wilburn led the field by a few strides over Gullett and Logan Goodman, though the back-side of the course is where the race was made. 

The TCA duo shook the field down until it was only Gullett still in the hunt, but Wilburn was determined to not leave this one to a kick. 

Wilburn attacked the final kilometer and created separated between him and Gullutt by the creek-crossing. 

He gaged the distance between him and the Eaton senior by listening to cheers from the side of the course, which told him this race was far from over. 

As history would have it, Wilburn endured all-comers, and turned right into Penrose without a challenging shadow. 

With Wilburn taking the state title, and Gullett the runner-up, Edwards gave TCA the lean in the team race with a his 16:00 third-place finish.

Nathan Meister tilted that lean all the more in TCA's favor, as he finished 11th, while Casey Golden gave the Titans four in front of anyone else's No. 2 by finishing 15th, and Logan Halla closed the door by finishing 21st.

TCA tallied an impressive 47 points for a dominating 65-point victory. Their 1-5 split was just 1:11 seconds, and their average was a stellar 16:22.

While TCA wrapped up the state title early, the race for the runner-up spot was tight. 

Frontier Academy took the honors, tallying 112 points, which was just ahead of Alamosa's 121, and Berthoud's 126.

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Next Page Isabel Allori Dominates, Alamosa Claims The Team Title