Brie Oakley got a lot of solo camera time at NXN, and it wasn't difficult to understand why.
One of the bigger decisions in coming up with a top ten list of stories for Colorado high school cross country, 2016, was the question of, "How many of these stories involve Brie Oakley?"
I could have, and did, try out cases that involved more than two, but the final cut had two of the ten involving Oakley. You can debate among yourselves whether I made the right decision or not. But, #1 definitely belonged to the senior star from Grandview.
The Brie Oakley cross country story didn't begin in 2016. It only seems that way. It began at the Arvada West Invitational in 2015. And, if you didn't see something special coming there, well, you probably failed to notice the one girl who was impossibly far in front of the rest of the field.
Oakley's 2015 season ended with a nice 26th-place finish at Nike Cross Nationals. Nice, but evidently not nice enough.
Oakley tore through the track season, culminating in a very impressive 3rd-place finish at the Brooks PR meet in Washington. Her time? 10:08.89.
Similarly, Oakley tore through the fall cross country campaign.
It all began with a win at the Aurora City Championships. In retrospect, the lightning bolt that stopped the race shortly after Oakley's finish was portentious.
Next stop? Liberty Bell. Conquered that--in record time.
Then Woodbridge. Debuting a new course with a time that may stand for ages--three miles in 15:53.6.
Then a run of titles over three consecutive weeks--Centennial League, 5A Region 2, and State. At each, you could have easily savored your beverage of choice between Oakley and the second-place finisher.
Then a bit of a respite, followed by yet another dominating win at Nike Cross Southwest. 16:56 in more than 80 degrees of Fahrenheit barely begins to tell the story.
But, the best was yet to come.
Oakley saved her best for Nike Cross Nationals. And 199 of the nation's best high school cross country runners were treated to a vanishing view of Brie Oakley's backside as she simply pulled away from the field like Ferrari among Fords.
As a measure of Oakley's dominance at NXN, consider that her 28 seconds on the field was double Katie Rainsberger's margin of last year. And, Rainsberger's margin in 2015 was easily the largest in the history of the meet.
Until this year, that is.
On December 3, 2016, the rest of the nation learned what we already knew. Brie Oakley is the real deal. More real than any deal we've seen in a long time.