Colorado at USATF National Junior Olympics

Kayla Young finished sixth in the 15-16 division with a 19:06. Colorado Track XC file photo.

On a pleasantly warm day in San Antonio, where the temperatures crept into the 60s, the age groupers settled it all for another year.

The first Colorado entry to score a major finish was an unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar, name. If I said "De La Cerda" and Pengunins Track/XC Club, you could probably put most of the pieces together. I'll finish piecing things together for you by mentioning that she goes by Sarah. She was born in 2005, and that puts her in high school in about six more years. Sarah finished eighth in the 7-8 girls with a 2K time of 8:13.87. Pretty soon, she will have her personal Colorado Track XC page.

Although they had no top ten individuals, the Landsharks and the Parker Panthers posted a 3-4 team finish in the 7-8 boys.

Moving to the 910 division, Landshark Erik Le Roux led his team to a fifth-place finish with a personal fifth at 10:55 for 3K. You can probably already guess one of the Colorado girls who placed in the 9-10 division. Yes, that would be Alayna Szuch, who finished fourth in 11:19. But, you may not recognize the name of Aidyn Woodall, who won the 9-10 division with a time of 11:02. If you don't recognize the name, don't feel too badly--I didn't recognize it either. But, I'm certain we'll be hearing more of that name.

The distance stays at 3K for the 11-12 age group. Colorado's girls were shut out of top ten individual and top five team finishes. But, they had company. The boys were, too.

The Colorado shutout extended into the girls13-14 division, but the boys turned that nasty string of events around. Landsharker Tanner Norman scored a 10th with 13:20 for 4K. And the NORCO Elite boys had a very nice run to take home a third in the team standings. The first published version of the results had them back several places, but that version of the results omitted top runner Jamie Lee. With Lee's 13th-place finish correctly factored into the team scoring, NORCO Elite finished a very strong third. 

I'm guessing that the unattached Michael Duran who finished sixth in the 15-16 boys 5K at 16:21 is the Michael Duran out of Pueblo. If so, that would be another Colorado top ten. Colorado very nearly had two top ten girls in the 15-16 division with Kayla Young running sixth in 19:06 and Olivia Hayden just missing the cut at 11th. There were no Colorado teams in either division to earn any team finishes. 

At the 17-18 level, Colorado had no teams, nor did we have any top ten finishers.

Complete Results