The lead pack early in the race looked like a Who's Who of 3A Girls Cross Country. Photo by Alan Versaw.
For three years, Samantha Berggren has come to the state meet and chased a dream. For three years she's come away not quite empty-handed, but definitely unfulfilled. This time she won the state championship.
At one-half mile, Berggren was part of a group of about six running shoulder-to-shoulder at the front of the race. One by one, attrition took its toll on the group until all that remained going up the second traverse of Powerline Climb were Samantha Berggren and Alamosa's Jenny DeSouchet. As solid of a race as DeSouchet had up to that point, she could not quite match Berggren over the final 500 meters. Berggren's strength would carry her to a nearly four-second margin of victory with a winning time of 19:19.
Natalie Anderson of Hotchkiss and Brandi Krieg of Grand Valley were the only other racers to finish under 20:00, despite the fact that this was widely regarded as yet another very strong 3A girls field going into the meet.
So, what happened?
What happened was exactly the same as what happened to each of the final four races of the day--the wind came up out of the south and punished the runners, intermittently throwing dust in their faces and pushing back against their progress, especially along the long gradual ascent along the creek to Powerline Climb. And, word around the cross country community is that at least a couple of the top contenders were running at something considerably less than full strength--not a particularly satisfying way for a season to end, but definitely something that is a part of sport.
The team title went to The Classical Academy, who extended their streak of consecutive state titles to eight. The Titans overcame a series of illnesses throughout the week leading up to state to win the title. Scoring 7-9-11-12, TCA totaled 39 points to 95 for second-place Hotchkiss. Estes Park was third at 115.
Both TCA and Hotchkiss ran lineups laden with freshmen and sophomores and figure to be back causing problems for other teams next year.