Week in Review: Friday/Saturday Meets

Andy Myers Invitational

Monfort Park has been good to this race for a long, long time, but the race management was looking for something more than Monfort could offer. They set out in search of less in the way of repeitive loops and more in the way of speed. They found both at Island Grove Park. What the racers got in return was a whole boatload of PRs. 

The meet was a little depleted by the departure of the Northern Conference schools for their league meet in Fort Collins, but what was left was scarcely a case of slim pickings.

The article linked below covers the big picture of the meet, but I'd like to take a second or two here to highlight a couple of things about the meet that might otherwise go missed by most. I'd like to note Trevor Dye's 17:08 to pace the small-school boys finishers at this meet. Wiggins would also finish ninth as a team, beating several much larger schools in the process. 

Desert Twilight XC Festival (This meet is full)

As you may have expected, this one was mostly about Arizona schools, with a few from New Mexico and California thrown in, but Durango also made the trip down. Note that this was Durango's second major trips in as many weeks--Palo Alto last weekend, Phoenix this weekend.

There have been a few difficulties with getting race results finalized from this one (think dozens upon multiplied dozens of teams and an event that finishes well after dark), but I still think we know where the Durango needle in the haystack is.

Shannon Maloney had what may be the best outing of her season to date, finishing 12th in the Sweepstakes race at 18:15. Durango matched her finish with a 12th (of 21 teams) in the Sweepstakes team tally.

The boys ran to 13th (of 27 teams) in their version of the Sweepstakes race, led by Gordon Gianniny in 16:19.

Presumably, now, the Demons do a little resting up for regionals, but I'm happy to help in a pinch with some out-of-state meet suggestions if they're looking for more of that.

Great American Cross Country Festival

It was a little lonely for Liam Meirow--as best as I can tell, the only Colorado entry at the Great American Cross Country Festival. Meirow found plenty of company, however, once the race started, finishing 35th in the Race of Champions with a time of 15:50.

Montezuma-Cortez Ancient Trails 5K Invitational

As we mentioned in some pre-meet coverage, this was Eva-Lou Edwars' sayonara to high school cross country invitationals. And she didn't let this one get away, winning by 43 seconds. M-C's Rachel Demby was second among Colorado girls at 21:18. Bayfield's girls were in a nice position to win this one with Aubree Lorenzen and Bridget Goddard adding their strong finishes to that of Edwards. Alas, however, Bayfield ceded 11 points to Ganado at the #4 position and another nine at the #5 position to leave the Arizona school with top team honors.

Trevor Gabbard picked up a second individual title for the Wolverines in 17:55, but Bayfield's boys were way out of the picture for the team title here, finishing fifth.

Northern Conference Championship

There was smoke at the Andy Myers meet, but there was fire at this meet.

Fire, as in 16:45 by Elise Cranny. At this point, my list of Colorado girls who've run sub-17 on a Colorado course is at three (Melody Fairchild, Whitney Anderson, and Elise Cranny), but the research isn't done yet.

Next, Mountain View proceeded to stun Thompson Valley for the girls team title, prompting a little bit of a thunderstruck response from TV coach Matt Norton as quoted in a Loveland Reporter-Herald article, "We ran as well as we could run, and Mountain View was flat out better, so hat's off to them."

Niwot edged a Broomfield team sans Ethan Gonzales on a tie-breaker for the boys title. The individual title went to Jake Link of Centaurus at 16:24.

Pat Amato Classic

For the second year in a row, this meet yielded some absolutely scorching times. If you have a better descriptor for seven guys under 16:00, two girls under 18:00, and 16 girls under 19:00, please let me know.

Laramie (Wyoming) made a few more believers out of the Colorado contingent with their trip down for this meet, taking the boys team title over Colorado notables Cherry Creek, Boulder, and Monarch.

Emma Gee runs 17:41 for the win, Claire Green runs 17:52 for second, and Monarch runs amuck for the girls team tally. Monarch 39, Cherry Creek (less Jordyn Colter) 87, and Pine Creek 95 in the girls team tally. If you're thinking Jordyn Colter makes up that difference, think again. But maybe with both Colter and Devon Peterson...

If you're looking for a list of PRs out of this meet, it more or less corresponds to the list of results. I can't imagine typing that many names.

Patriot League Cross Country Meet

This was probably the first-ever Patriot League meet in Sterling, seeing as to how Sterling was a Northern Conference team for the longest time. But, the population bubble has long since moved past the 14-18 age category in Sterling and the county seat of Logan County now fills a 3A school.

Even so, it wasn't even a 3A school that won the boys half of this meet. That title went the way of another Lyons smackdown. There are a lot of 3A folks happy that Lyons is a 2A program right now (and probably even a few 4A folks fall under that description as well). Not many folks are touching Lyons right now, and your reasons why would go Paul Roberts, Marcel Such, Joel Such, and Matt Dillon. Roberts wins the individual title in 16:04.

Miriam Roberts won the girls individual title in 19:25, but Estes Park took home the team hardware. Obviously, things are not yet back to normal in Estes Park following the flooding, but Estes Park cross country seems to have weathered the turmoil very nicely. Kelsi Lasota, Lily Tomasula-Martin, Holli Holmes, and Bizzy Palmer gave the Bobcats a very respectable team tally of 15 points.

Windjammer Invitational

It was fast this year, but that's hardly a surprise. The Windjammer is always fast. Erin Norton knows all about that, and she is now a two-time winner of this race, finishing 15 seconds out ahead of Battle Mountain's Valerie Constien. Battle Mountain was probably a little puzzled by all the expanse of flat, hard surface to run on, but they seemed to catch on before the end of the race. The Huskies finished nine points back of Grandview for the team title.

Where the boys were concerned, it was Phillip Reid of Ponderosa nine seconds ahead of Chuck Bisbee, winning in 16:10. And Reid's Ponderosa Mustangs would hold on for the team title, beating Rock Canyon by six points.