The Elizabeth Invitational began with perfect racing weather, and ended with a scramble to buses to avoid nearby lightning. Fortunately, a decision to move up the girls varsity race allowed all the races to finish before weather made its statement.
In the open race, Lakewood and Golden put on a show with Lakewood scoring 45 points and Golden scoring 47, but it was Sand Creek's Nathan Gipprich running away with the victory. The girls open ushered in the first hint of cloud cover, but the D'Evelyn girls found that to their liking by placing 5 girls in the top 15. Lakewood was not far behind. Hailey Engen of Green Mountain would cross the finish first, 40 seconds in front of 2nd place.
The boys varsity turned into a very competitive team competition. 4th, 5th, and 6th place were separated by a mere 4 points. But at the end of the day, D'Evelyn showed off some of their depth and why they expect to be a huge factor among 3A boys this year. Lakewood placed all 7 runners in the top 40 for a second place finish.
The individual awards came down to the host team's David Fine and Douglas County's Michael Long. Long held the lead throughout the race and roared through the gate to set a new course record at 17:05. This also marks Long's first XC victory, but after 3 top ten finishes this season, he may have found winning to his liking.
The girls race was moved up 20 minutes, and provided the greatest tension of the day. Would the girls make it through the gate before the first boys came through the other direction? Fortunately, Kayla Young made sure of it running away from the field to another victory in Elizabeth. While her 19:24 was a few seconds slower than her course record of two years ago, the circumstances had to make this one feel pretty good.
Carley Bennett of Lakewood made her second appearance at the Elizabeth Invitational count in a solid 20:01 just missing becoming the only other girl besides Kayla to break 20 minutes on this challenging course in its present configuration. For the team awards, the race came down to four teams. Lakewood, Green Mountain, and Denver North were separated by 5 runners, but Elizabeth used their pack mentality to take the home victory placing 6 runners in the top 30.
Photo by Alan Small