Kaylee Kearse leads favored Peyton into 2A Region 2 on Thursday. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Starting with this piece, we'll take a quick look at each of the regionals around the state. Each region has a link to virtual meets for the region. By clicking on the virtual meet link you are taken to a page where you can view to virtual meet of the season best times for all runners in the region. A nice feature of these virtual meets is that you can hover your mouse over any athletes you believe won't be running in the regional, click on the X that appears at the left end of the line, and remove that runner from the virtual meet. Note that virtual meets require Insider status to view.
For 2A virtual meets, make sure your Scoring Rules are set to score 3, displace 3.
2A Region 1
Lyons is your clear boys favorite hear, and they only strengthened their position with a solid showing at 3, 4, and 5 at the Mile High League meet. Potentially, as many as 12 complete boys teams compete in this region. If so, five teams will advance to state, but only four advance to state if the count of complete teams drops to 11. Heritage Christian, Resurrection, and Yuma seem well-positioned to advance. The fifth place, if it happens, should be an interesting battle between Highland, Byers, and Dawson. It will take a major leap for any other team to make it. Highland likely brings in the most momentum of the three bubble teams.
Among the girls, the most teams the region can hope for is four. And, it also seems unlikely the number will drop below four. Heritage Christian Academy and Lyons look like locks for two of those qualifying positions. Resurrection should be the next best team, but it gets very interesting after that. Shining Mountain, Dawson, Nederland, Clear Creek, and Yuma are all in the hunt. Dawson and Shining Mountain have both showed well in recent meets. Yuma's virtual meet standing has been enhanced by a couple of recent races on very fast courses; the Lyons course figures to be a bit more challenging for the team in red.
2A Region 2
At this point, the boys have 12 potential complete teams. If that's what shows up on Thursday, the region advances five teams. Otherwise, and this seems more likely, the region advances only four. Wiggins and Peyton, honestly, are way out ahead of this field. Neither team appears to be threatened except by each other. Denver Academy and Kiowa appear to be favorites for the next two slots, but much remains to be decided.
For the girls, only eight teams have showed enough runners during the season to field complete teams. That means no more than three teams advance to state (and only two if the count of complete teams at the regional drops to six or fewer. Peyton runs clearly ahead of the rest going into the race. Kiowa, Wiggins, and Colorado Springs School figure to battle it out for the other berths, if they bring their full rosters to the regional meet, but there's some question about that based on most recent meets.
2A Region 3
In all likelihood, three teams advance to state out of this region, but if everyone shows up with their entire squads, it does jump to four. Rocky Ford looks like a shoo-in for one of those positions. Del Norte and Lake City (amazing enough, these two programs have adjacent atttendance areas) occupy the next most favored positions. Custer County and Rye rate tops among those hoping for a fourth position to be there.
As with the boys, thee positions seems assured, with a slight hope of four if everyone shows up. Sargent and Rocky Ford are the dominant girls teams here. Lake City, Center, and Custer County each hold out hopes for a state berth.
2A Region 4
Who would have guessed how tough the Western Slope boys 2A teams turned out to be this year? If you're trying to qualify out of this region, the best news would seem to be that the region appears solid to send four teams to state. Those four spots, however, seem to be reasonably well spoken for by Telluride, Ouray, Mancos, and Crested Butte. Anyone else slipping in is going to need a sterling effort. Meeker and Hotchkiss are best positioned of those on the outside looking in.
No more than three girls teams will make it to state here. As of this moment, Telluride, Hotchkiss, and Paonia look like the three teams, but hope still breathes strong at Crested Butte.
