Liam Meirow and Carson Hume were running side-by-side with a couple hundred meters to go, but Meirow would pull away before the end. Photo by Michele Bisbee.
Kenosha, WI - The weather cooperated for the Footlocker Midwest Regional meet today. Trending all week about 6 degrees below normal, it appeared it would be a chilly affair, but besides a brisk headwind for the opening uphill stretch, the temps ended up being in the high 30's for the girls seeded race and low 40's for the boys.
The warmer weather did not translate to a warm reception for Colorado athletes, however, as they were blanked from advancing on both the girls and boys side. According to Jeff Bliven's article earlier this month, you would have to go back to 1999 for a similar result.
Mountain Vista's Conner Weaver did try everything in his tool chest to make the trip to San Diego. Running in his chartreuse Vista Nation singlet, Weaver had Colorado's best showing of the day, running 15:30.00, just 0.1 off his PR and 12 seconds faster than his effort the week before at Toka Sticks. Not an easy back-to-back effort by any means.
Summit's Liam Meirow, Dakota Ridge's Carson Hume and Weaver's teammate Andrew Walton, would all break 16 minutes on the course with 15:50 (27th), 15:52 (30th) and 15:54 (32nd) respectively.
The boys race ran very tight through the first half with no clear leader through the first half of the race. Grant Fisher of Grand Blanc, MI eventually would work through the pack to win in 15:02. A very solid time on the University of Wisconsin - Parkside course.
The Colorado girls entrants were a bit more sparse. With Jordyn Colter absent due to illness, Fairview's Isabelle Kennedy would be Colorado's top entrant. Kennedy finished in 32nd place in 18:29.
Iowa's Stephanie Jenks tried to break the race open, taking the lead early and stringing out the pursuers by the first mile. Carmel Indiana's Kelcy Welsh ran more patiently and eventually reeled in Jenks to win 17:34 to 17:39.