It was a big day in the high school careers of Ben Walth and Rene Carter, who ran to their second and first high school titles, respectively. Photos by Joel Hawkins.
Like a lot of places up and down the Front Range yesterday, Monument Valley Park didn't completely dodge the weather, but the greater Terrors of the day wore the brown and white of Palmer High School. And, perhaps that gold trim on the Palmer singlets is now just a bit more visible.
Lyons brought down a team, but kept notables like Paul Roberts, Sierra Tucker, and CeAnn Udovich in civvies. That opened a window of opportunity that Palmer came crashing through. Carter picked up her first-ever high school varsity win (whether in track or cross country), while Ben Walth picked up his second.
A nice pack time from Vanguard kept Palmer well out of reach of the boys team title, but the Palmer girls stormed the field for a 32-92 margin of conquest over second-place Discovery Canyon, with all five scorers placing in the top 12. Evidently, Palmer meant to send a message.
Message received.
Also sending a message, of course, was 3A Vanguard. The Vanguard boys squeezed their five scores, paced this time by Miles Hatton, into the top 15 places and a pack time of 35 seconds. As good as Alamosa, Lamar, and Frontier Academy are, I'd hate to be the one to try to tell Vanguard they're out of the hunt in 3A Boys.
Pursuing Ben Walth to the finish line on a course Walth knows maybe even better than the back of his own hand were Joel Such and Gage Mayo. Both Such and Mayo also managed to slip beneath the 17-minute mark.
Carter's primary pursuit came from Ashley Polk of the host team. Polk finished at 20:16, just over seven seconds back of Carter.