Samantha Skeen and Stephanie Carrasco wage a battle for second late in the race. Photo by Ben Hershelman.
If you are a soccer purist, the fields around Margaret Carpenter Rec Center in Thornton were not the place for you on Friday. Over 1,000 high school cross country athletes showed up to trample what was otherwise a lovely place to play soccer.
The Thornton Invite has grown significantly due to its geographical location, smooth meet management and calendar spot. Once the calendar apocalypse happened earlier this year, Thornton and Dave Sanders were no longer on the same date, thus allowing a lot more schools to show up. The previous year's race featured a respectable 18 teams. The 2015 edition had a whopping 40 teams show up to toe the line.
As a bit of a rarity, the boy's race ran first. The temperature forecast for the race seemed to be advertising some delicious race conditions. After spending September in a furnace, any meet with a weather forecast under 80 degrees feels like a Go...
