Ever so briefly, Paul Roberts left the outcome of this race in doubt. Photo by Jeff McCoy.
The repeat state title for the Lyons boys ranked about as close to a foregone conclusion as anything we encounter in life.
And when the opportunity to do the deed finally came, Lyons made certain there wasn't anything left to chance. This one probably doesn't quite rank with the Adams State perfect score at the 1992 DII national championships, but you take note of perfect scores at championship meets when you see them. They really are that rare. They really are that special.
On this Saturday, just as it was 52 weeks ago, Paul Roberts posted the second fastest time of all runners in all classifications on the Norris Penrose/Bear Creek Regional Park course. What was a little different from last year, though, was that teammate Marcel Such tied for the third best time in all classifications. Marcel's younger brother Joel had the 21st best time in all classifications. Little wonder that Lyons perfect scored the 2A race.
In a complete merge of the day's results, Lyons finished eighth among boys teams. If you take it down to a power merge of the top approximately 20 teams, Lyons snares a fifth. That's how special this team is. And it's a team that's not going away any time soon; Roberts and Joel Such are sophomores.
To add to the domination, junior teammate Matt Dillon finished 11th among all 2A boys. On this day, nobody in 2A was going to touch Lyons. Last week, it was a perfect score with velveted paws; this week it was a perfect score with Thor's hammer.
Second place would go to a very good Crested Butte team. Rocky Ford and Vanguard tied for third, but Erik Rocha is becoming a very useful young man in the Meloneer scheme of things. For the second week in a row, Rocha wins the tie-breaker for Rocky Ford.
We've already discussed the 1-2-3 finish of Roberts-Such-and-Such, but SkyView Academy's Ben Butler at least made it interesting, chasing, but never quite overtaking, Joel Such all the way to the finish line.
If you recall last year's spectacular freshman class in 2A, they are still around and doing very well as sophomores. Telluride's Jack Plantz finished sixth overall to give the sophomores four of the top six places. Only seniors Marcel Such and Forrest Smith were able to break up the group run of sophomores.