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celebrating top performances week after week...</h3>
Ian Meek and Ashley Bock came up with big wins at Delta and Fossil Ridge this past weekend. Photos by Alan Versaw and Mitch Bock.
This week Colorado Track XC honors Ian Meek and Ashley Bock for their impressive victories and outstanding performances.
It was truly an exciting win for Meek this weekend. The sophomore of Montrose High School took the top spot at the competitive Delta Invitational on Friday in what turned out to be quite the dramatic race.
“I didn’t know how well I was going to do in the race at all,” Meek explained, “I just assumed I’d go with the lead pack and if I got tired I’d just drop back and see what my place was.”
Dropping back, however, wasn’t in the cards for Meek on Friday. Rather, he was a serious contender from the beginning.
“I usually have a slow start and am usually behind most of my teammates for the first mile,” he said. “But at the mile marker I was still holding on with the top couple guys and felt really good. I thought I’d just stick with them. At one point, half a mile away, Zach Walsh from Basalt started to pull away, so I stayed back with the Telluride and Rifle guys but then I started to catch back up to him, and by the end I was right on his tail. It turned into a test to see who had the most in their tank.”
It turns out that Meek did. Meek clinched the victory in 15:47 with three other boys finishing within five seconds of him.
“Not at all did I think I would be a contender. I just went out there with a great group of guys with tremendous talent and just finished with my strong kick. I’ve always wanted to be in one of those races for first where it’s just a push to the end to see who’s got the most in their tanks.”
As well as a win, Meek also went home with a serious PR that was just .49 seconds off his school record. “My fastest last year on that same course was a 16:32, and this year I didn’t expect to come close to that because it’s the start of the season,” he said. “I asked my assistant coach what my time was and I didn’t believe her. I couldn’t believe I’d touched that time the second meet of the season.”
What makes Meek’s performance this weekend even more impressive is his young age and relative inexperience compared to the rest of the field he dominates. He competed at the cross country state championships as a freshman finishing in the middle of the pack, and last spring he competed in the 1600 at the track championships but was still fairly unknown. Looks like that may be changing this season.
“Older guys are a lot more experienced and can be a lot rougher,” Meek said. “But at a race like this one it didn’t mean anything. We were just great runners out there sticking together and pushing each other.”
Ashley Bock also had a solid win this weekend at her home course at Fossil Ridge on Saturday. The senior singled herself out of an impressive field to grab the top spot with a time of 18:49.
“The goal was to go in mentally strong because I’m still figuring out how to race with it being my first race back,” Bock explained. “There were definitely some girls that I’ve been very competitive with in track and previous seasons. I knew I wanted to hang with Emma Gee and not let other girls pass me. My main goal was to stay mentally strong and focus on keeping them at my backside.”
Half way into the race however, Bock realized that she shouldn’t just be hanging with the rest of the field, she should be leading.
“I was wanting to take it out a bit slower and feel out the race as I went. At the mile-and-a-half point I decided the pack was going a solid pace, but I had more left in my tank. I picked up my pace and sighted out for the end.” Bock would win with about a 30-meter gap over second place.
Bock has been a consistently strong runner and, now as a senior in her final season, she made sure to set herself up to have as much success as possible.
“I did a lot of different things to boost me in the right direction,” she said. “I worked on nutrition to make sure I was eating right. I trained on more hills and then I started doing some lifting too and working on my core and doing injury prevention stuff because I’ve been injured in the past. My team has really helped me out too and I upped my mileage as well.”
With such a strong base entering the season, Bock is expecting good things to come.
“It’s really exciting being a senior,” she smiled, “I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what I can do this season and watching my times drop.”
Congratulations to Colorado Track XC’s athletes of the week, Ian Meek and Ashley Bock. Best of luck to them as they continue training and powering through their seasons!