Connor Weaver pushes toward the finish line and 14th place. Photo by Michele Bisbee.
It's been a long Colorado season. And perhaps some of the wear and tear of that was showing today in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
For the first year since 1999, Colorado will have no Foot Locker finalists. Blame an illness, if you like. Blame the immense popularity of NXR-SW, if you like. Blame big travel on the weekend following Thanksgiving. Blame whatever you like, or blame nothing at all. It will be a silent day for Colorado at San Diego's Balboa Park in two weeks.
Colorado sent several contestants into the seeded races and, while none ended up with the girls from Grand Rapids who traditionally hold hands from the start and take their sweet time making their circuit of the course, neither did any find their way into the top tens.
Colorado's top finisher on the day was Mountain Vista's Connor Weaver. Weaver would take 14th in 15:30. That would be eight seconds out of the last ticket to San Diego. Teammate Andrew Walton took 32nd in 15:54. Between them were Liam Meirow (15:50) and Carson Hume (15:52). Paul Miller, Dom Compoz, and Ethan Gonzales also ran strong enough to notch top-50 finishes. Ahead of all of these, however, were the dashed dreams of making a spectacular run to qualify for Foot Locker Nationals in their senior season.
Things were a little dimmer yet on the girls side. Isabelle Kennedy led Colorado's finishers in 32nd at 18:29. Emily Wolff would be Colorado's next finisher in 62nd at 19:00. 13 places behind her was Tabor Scholl at 19:11.
And so, the 2013 Colorado high school cross country season will go quietly into the night in Portland on December 7.
