Shannon Osoba leads a solid, and steadily getting better, Rock Canyon girls team into the Continental League championships on Wednesday. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Through the remainder of this week, I'll be previewing as many of the league meets as I can possibly get to. We'll have a quick discussion of some of the highlights and possibilities, followed by links to virtual meets for both the boys and girls divisions of the league meet. The virtual meets have the feature that you can eliminate runners you don't think will be running (simply hover with your mouse over the athlete name, then click on the 'X' that appears at the left-hand end of the line). Note, however, that virtual meet links require MileSplit Insider status for viewing.
This time, it's the Continental League's turn.
It's easy to think the biggest question of this meet is whether or not Mountain Vista show up with their varsity teams. A quick review of past Continental League meets says they will, or at least with a good portion thereof. Either way, that satisfies the criteria for naming them league meet favorites. That would go for both boys and girls.
None of that is to suggest, however, that this league hasn't become a whole lot stronger, in cross country terms, in recent years. There was a day when this league clearly took a back seat to the Front Range and Centennial Leagues. That day has come and gone. It may never come back.
Solid teams packing in behind Mountain Vista include Chaparral, Legend, Rock Canyon, ThunderRidge, and, well, most of the league.
Results of the season to date suggest the boys individual title comes down between Mountain Vista teammates Paxton Smith and Joshua Romine. The battle for second in the team scoring likely plays out between Chaparral, Rock Canyon, and Legend, allowing that Chaparral and Rock Canyon probably have somewhat of an advantage here, but not enough of one they could go to sleep on it even if the other wasn't there.
For the girls, Allie Chipman has the aura of unbeatable (at least for this meet), and that's even with Catherine Liggett and Savanna Dalton figuring in the field. Rock Canyon and ThunderRidge are the strongest candidates for team runner-up, but don't get too anxious to count Castle View out of that equation.
Continental League boys virtual meet
Continental League girls virtual meet