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Trivia, interviews, and anecdotes from the finish line.</h2>
Sisters Natalie and Mae Anderson are an example of the most obvious key to success in 2A cross country. Photos by Alan Versaw.
The state meet seemed to have an abnormal boost in successful siblings this year. Or at least we noticed it more this year.
As you might exepct, 2A was especially a family outing with the Anderson sisters pushing Hotchkiss to it’s repeat team title, the Such brothers of Lyons placing second and third in the boys race, and, of course, Miriam and Paul Roberts sweeping the individual titles in the classification.
Of course, a large portion of the success in the Roberts family can be explained by having a genius coach as a father, but, following the 2A boys race, Paul may have identified the X factor that has brought the household four individual titles. “My mom is a great cook! We have a lot of burritos and spaghetti, lasagna, It’s a great mix of stuff. My mom definitely has to put a lot on the table since there’s ten of us.”
And, yes, therein would be a hint at one secret for keeping the pipeline full in your 2A program.....
It seems that Roberts family dynamic has seeped into the entire team’s mentality as both Paul Roberts and Marcel Such both referred to each other as brothers or family. It's an atmosphere no doubt forged through the adversarial conditions in Lyons this fall. Roberts commented, "[The flooding] definitely brought us together more. We’ve always been a family. We’re always together and encouraging each other."
Marcel Such explained that the catastrophe put the season into a different perspective,“When you see everything you’ve grown up with change in a bad way it really makes you focus on what’s important, that’s running, serving our God, and the community of Lyons.”
Family was a consistent theme among runners in post-race interviews, particularly those that played roles in team victories, and Thompson Valley had no equal when it came to team stratagem.
Team captain Hayley Berg stated the team’s priorities from the beginning had be each other. “Our biggest thing this year is that we are a family. It is way more important to run for the team, not just the individual. That’s what we did today. I’m just so unbelievably proud.”
Coach Matt Norton managed the pressure of heightened expectations by having TV’s girls find security in the pack. “For us it was about concentrating about running with each other. As long as they could see their teammates close by it gave them a great sense of comfort.” Norton’s scoring runners were separated by a brief 20 seconds.
The late blooming Frontier Academy also had a strong pack that anchored the team. Senior Chris Baker didn’t had to wait long (31 seconds in fact) after he finished in fourth for rest of the the scorers on the team to roll across the line in 12-13-15.
Baker was recovering all season from an ankle that he sprained at the team camp at the YMCA of the Rockies. This would explain in part Frontier’s exemplary October, but, according to Baker, Brett Shanklin’s coaching had something to do with it. “I gotta own it to my coach, because he he really brought us together as a family.”
Sydney Fesenmeyer led the Spartans of Salida for the second week in a row, and the Spartans led every team in 3A. The Purple People Eaters devoured the Norris Penrose Course finishing 3-6-10-16. It’s been said before, but it’s worth saying again no one graduates from this team. Also with a coach like Kenny Wilcox one would think this team has nowhere to go but up.
Fesenmeyer stated something familiar after the team awards. “[I want to thank] my coaches and my team. My coaches trained me exactly for this race. They did so well with the team, and my teammates, it’s family. Running this race together was just awesome.” Her teammates were not the only family Fesenmeyer had at the state meet. Her cousin Heath Fesenmeyer was the fifth runner on the victorious Lyons squad.
One sibling that was unable to attend the race was Ashi Geberkidane. Younger brother Cerake thought that he was most likely busy with homework at Harvard. Paul Roberts broke Ashi’s course record of 16:21.7 during his 16:19.6 victory in the 2A race, but Cerake made sure the record stayed with the Geberkidane family, resetting it only two hours later. The mark now sits at 15:48.2. The Denver East senior revealed that there was more on the line for him than just a record. “I came back to redeem myself. I really wanted to get first and second, but I didn’t last year. So I trained really hard. I really wanted to win it to continue it on in my family.” As a curious piece of trivia, the record-smashing time was the slowest race in Geberkidane’s season.
And, finally, the younger of the two Cranny sisters, Emily, ran in a strong fourth position for Niwot helping them earn a second-place team trophy in 4A girls.