Before they parted company, Miriam Roberts and Natalie Anderson had already established clear leadership of the 2A individual race. Photo by Jeff McCoy.
Apparently, Hotchkiss never got the memo that Lyons was threatening the defense of their state title from last fall. Or, maybe Hotchkiss got the memo, and found a little extra motivation in the memo.
Either way, Hotchkiss made a rout of the team contest.
Things started well enough for Lyons. Miriam Roberts ran way ahead of the field. In fact, if the team title was decided by team times, Roberts put her team into a nearly insurmountable lead with her winning time of 19:44, nearly 50 seconds ahead of Hotchkiss's Natalie Anderson in second.
That much wasn't exactly unexpected. Roberts and Anderson were prohibitive favorites to finish as the top two--and probably in the order they finished. The gap between them may have been a little larger than anticipated, but that's about the size of the surprises there. Surprises started coming at #3. where Rachel Rairdon of Heritage Christian Academy showed the rest of the state what small 2A meets had already been seeing from her the last couple of weeks.
But Hotchkiss's dreams were not put off for long. Jenni Celis nailed down fourth, nearly catching Rairdon at the end. Four places back of Celis, Mae Anderson finished the Hotchkiss scoring. Ten places back of Anderson, Sophia Schelle became Hotchkiss's fourth finisher, and still only two teams had more than one finisher across the line.
Sierra Tucker, the #2 for Lyons on this day, didn't cross until 20th. The surge Lyons had hoped for that would put them into position to challenge Hotchkiss for the 2A girls title never materialized. And, despite the huge initial advantage Miriam Roberts had afforded Lyons, Hotchkiss won the team time title as well. This one belonged to Hotchkiss--sock, spike, and timing chip.
Lyons did, however, manage to barely hold off Vanguard for second. Vanguard, in turn, held off Paonia by a single point for third.
The face of 2A girls cross country figures to change dramatically for next fall. Vanguard moves up to 3A. Lyons loses Miriam Roberts to graduation. Hotchkiss loses Natalie Anderson and Jennifer Celis. Paonia loses Taylor Polson.
All that hints at some major shifts in the landscape of 2A cross country, but that's a story to be told in the extended period of dead between now and the post-season cross country meets.