Varsity Boys Race
Perched on the mesa overlooking much of metro Denver, first off the line was the boys' varsity 2-mile race. The runners departed under much-relished cloud cover, blunting the impact of the 91-degree late afternoon sun. The athletes remained tightly packed up through the first loop.
However, midway through the second loop on the back, or south, side of the course the racing began. Mountain Vista's boys, who had a pre-determined patient racing strategy, exploded. On a slight downhill, Vista's Carter Dillon dashed to the lead and carried it through to the finish, stopping the clock at 10:02, quite good for early season on a cross country course.
Next across the line was Rock Canyon's "super-soph," Easton Allred, 11 seconds in arrears of Dillon. Allred carried the flag for RC in the absence of Chris Theodore, the defending champion, who sat this one out. Then a rush of finishers in close proximity, including Dakota Ridge's surprising Conner Ohlson in 3rd, the re-emerging Shayan Zerrin in 4th, and Denver South's Yonatan Kefle for 5th.
The top ten was filled out by back-from-injury Parker Mackay in 6th, Austin Vancil of Dakota Ridge in 7th, Mountain Vista's Caden Foster and Ethan Rouse in 8th and 10th respectively, and Niwot's own outstanding youngster Cruz Culpepper, squeezed in between in 9th.
In the team race, the anticipated showdown between Mountain Vista and Rock Canyon never emerged. Even with Theodore in the line-up, RC would not have challenged Vista. The Golden Eagles appear to be as strong as ever, after last year's somewhat unexpected absence atop the state meet results.
They easily carried away the team trophy. Was it the karate guy or the spelling bee trophy? I'm not sure. Regardless, they won in dominating fashion with an impressively low total of 29. Next was Palmer Ridge. Without a finisher in the top ten, yet a 12 second span for runners 1-5, the Bears amassed 82 points. And Dakota Ridge, with perhaps their best boys team in quite some time, took 3rd with 100 points.
Of note was the absence of Silver Creek's stout triumvirate of James Lee, Brock Dykma, and Logan Simington anywhere near the top of the results. Well, word on the course was that they "tempoed" on the day...makes sense given they all finished within seconds of one another between 19th and 28th place.