The words of a father are powerful. In many cases, the words of a coach are even more powerful. But, when someone who is both father and coach tells you, "I don't see you finishing in the top 20 again. I see you finishing first," that has the power to shape a lot of things.
Such was the challenge before him when Jerald Taylor set out of this fall's cross country season.
And, there were moments along the way when it looked as if it may not happen. Most notably, it looked that way when Taylor was beaten by 2A rival Ben Kelley on September 3 at the Battle Mountain Husky Invitational. And, it wasn't a simple beating. Kelley had Taylor in arrears by over 30 seconds.
It's not easy to bounce back from a setback like that.
But, Taylor did bounce back. Taylor took a few more defeats through the remainder of the season, but the list of people who beat him reads like a Who's Who of Colorado high school cross country--Ian Meek, Charlie Perry, Max Martinez, Isaiah DeLaCerda, and Tanner Norman. And, through it all, Taylor kept getting better.
So, when October 29 rolled around, Jerald Taylor had no reason whatsoever to be intimidated by the field he was facing. Taylor had faced the best in the state and kept them at close range.
Nobody, but nobody, kept Taylor at close range yesterday. A lead of a couple inches at the mile swelled to a lead of 18 seconds at two miles, and then again further to a margin of 28 seconds over Rocky Ford's Cody Danley at the finish.
The ominous storm cloud from the Western Slope never drifted close enough in Taylor's direction to cast any shade on the eventual winner. Taylor ran 51 seconds ahead of Patrick Scoggins in third and 54 seconds ahead of Kelley in fourth.
With the individual title settled, attention turned quickly to the team title. But, that one held mystery roughly equal to the mystery accompanying the individual title.
After pacing the earliest part of the race with the governor set rigidly at moderate, Grant Hughes, Harley Morgan, and Nick Lovato began picking their way through the field.
At no point in the race until the final mile were Hughes, Morgan, and Lovato separated by even as much as five seconds. The three-headed monster moved up from about place 20 early, to the teens of places midway, to just missing a trio of top-ten finishes at the end.
In the final tally, Hughes would claim fifth at just over 17 minutes, Morgan eighth (though less than two seconds behind Hughes), and Lovato 11th. It seemed a dangerous proposition going into the race for the Coursers to need to go to their #4, Andrew Briar, for completing the team score, but had any of the Coursers' big three had problems, Briar's 13th-place finish would have easily been enough to preserve the winning combination.
The threat from Lyons never effectively emerged, and even less so the threat from Mancos. Lyons started even more patiently than Vanguard. But, while Isaac Roberts eventually found his way to seventh place at the same hair over 17 minutes as Hughes, Colton Jonjak-Plahn would be the next Lyons finisher at 14th.
The final margin of 15 for Vanguard to 26 for Lyons was typically 2A close, but--at the same time--not really that close. 11 points in a score-three model may as well be a yawning chasm.
Close in 2A team scoring is a tie-breaker, or maybe as much as one or two points. But, maybe all that changes over this winter's meetings of the cross country committee and CHSAA Legislative Council.
Harley Morgan and Grant Hughes Interview