Katie Rainsberger earned a return trip to Portland with Saturday's third-place finish in 17:45. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Maybe it was the weather. Maybe, paradoxically, it was the long layoff between the state meets and Nike Cross Regionals - Southwest. Maybe it was all the training at altitude paying off on a day when strength was favored over speed. Maybe it was having no place to run and hide from the competition all season long.
Maybe it was all of those things in varying measures.
And maybe there were factors we haven't even begun to put a finger on yet.
But, the bottom line of the story was that Utah and Colorado dominated everything in sight at this year's NXR-SW meet. Here are some metrics to consider:
State populations:
Arizona - 6.55 million (2010 median age = 35.9)
Colorado - 5.19 million (2010 median age = 36.1)
Utah - 2.86 million (2010 median age = 29.2)
Nevada - 2.76 million (2010 median age = 36.3)
New Mexico - 2.09 million (2010 median age = 36.7)
Most recent report of high school cross country participants:
Arizona - 6243
Colorado - 8182
Utah - 4807
Nevada - 1984
New Mexico - 2916
Top 50 finishers in championship boys race
Arizona - 5
Colorado - 15
Utah - 23
Nevada - 2
New Mexico - 5
Top 50 finishers in championship girls race
Arizona - 2
Colorado - 28
Utah - 16
Nevada - 2
New Mexico - 2
For years, Colorado and Utah have been dominating NXR-SW, but the extent of that domination reached new levels at this year's meet. For further comparisons and speculation about the Colorado/Utah distance phenomenon, would refer you to Utah, Colorado, and matters of distance.
For the remainder of this article, however, we'll focus on the Colorado results out of NXR-SW.
From the team apsect of the meet, Colorado has one team that has already qualified for Nike Cross Nationals. By virtue of their one-point win over Davis, the Fort Collins girls already have their rooms reserved in Tigard, Oregon, for the weekend of December 7.
For the next five days, Mountain Vista's boys and Monarch's girls have the dubious distinction of stewing over their prospects for an at-large bid. As problems go, it's a good problem to have, but it does tend to generate a little stress as the teams wait for the remaining Nike regions to post their results. And, visiting the various forum threads discussing the prospects of various teams provides no relief whatsoever from that stress. I can tell you that from personal experience.
We, of course, wish both Mountain Vista and Monarch well, but it's no secret at this point that Monarch's position is stronger than Mountain Vista's. Historically, 2-3 gaps mean a lot to the selection committee. The story of the entire season means something as well, and Monarch was rated more highly among the nation's girls teams than Mountain Vista was among the nation's boys teams going in. Nevertheless, both teams are still alive and hoping--and that's a whole lot more than you can say for 99% of the nation's cross country teams right now.
Joining whatever Colorado teams will be in place at Nike Cross Nationals figure to be individual qualifiers Cerake Geberkidane (15:17), Bailey Roth (15:32), Zachary Alhamra (15:37), Elise Cranny (17:03), and Katie Rainsberger (17:45). This, of course, assumes that each of these individuals will accept the bid to nationals. Cranny's time was a few seconds off her course-record time from last year, but there was simply no meaningful comparison of course conditions from last year to this. Saturday was not a day for course records.
Other noteworthy performances coming out of the weekend include top-ten individual finishes for Erin Norton, Ali Deitsch, Valerie Constien, Lauren Gregory (who, however, qualifies for NXN as part of a team and not as an individual), and Connor Weaver. Additional top ten team finishes belonged to the Pine Creek girls (4th) and Battle Mountain girls (7th).
Open team titles went to The Classical Academy (who did run a school team) and Colorado Springs CO, a sort of all-star collection of Colorado Springs individuals not in the championship race. Truthfully, I'm not at all certain that the Colorado Springs CO "team" made any conscious choice to be a team. It may have just sort of worked out that way when location name defaulted to team name. The second-place boys team, Cheyenne Mountain Running, was mostly a single-school team, but benefitted from the introduction of a ringer named Corey Lewenkamp.
Team scoring is a bit of a murky issue in the open races.
Regardless, it was a stellar meet for several Colorado teams and individuals. The citizens race also went very nicely for Colorado, but I'm still looking for more in the way of specifics via a usable set of results.
Meet Results, Photos, and Videos