Drew Seidel raised some eyebrows last week at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede. What will Seidel bring this week?
This is year four of the Colorado State/Frontier Academy. Just when the meet attains stability, you have to begin wondering what will happen with the Hughes Stadium property. Such is the fate of cross country courses here in Colorado--and especially so up and down the Front Range.
For this year, though, we'll enjoy the meet.
On the boys side of things, we'll watch closely the battle among Niwot, Fossil Ridge, and possibly Loveland for top billing. Lyons figures as the top small-school program at the meet, but we'll watch Liberty Common closely to see if they're running closer to a full regular varsity than they appeared to do at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede last weekend. And, Resurrection Christian has given signals they may be a team that's more necessary to watch this year than last.
Niwot had a decent start to their season at the Vista Nation meet last weekend, but this week--when not up against Palmer Ridge and the top 5A teams in the state--might give a clearer hint as to what this team is capable of.
Loveland, a third-place finisher at D'Evelyn last week, seems perpetually on the cusp of greater things. This meet could be a springboard for this team.
Fossil Ridge, having sat out last week, is a comparative unknown. Although Lyons sat out last week, I think they missed the qualifier for "comparative unknown."
Individually, Wheat Ridge's Drew Seidel had a very nice performance at last week's CM Stampede and must be counted among the individual favorites. Also taking up places on that list would be Cruz Culpepper, Isaac Roberts, Josh Torres, Blake Hubert, Christian Fagerlin, Zac Witman, and Dylan Schubert.
Truthfully, that's a rather long list of individual favorites. We can be forgiven for hoping that means it's an exciting individual contest. It's certainly a nice cross section of northern Colorado's best.
For the girls, Mackenzie Marler comes down from Cheyenne East, and that could spell trouble.
Looking to keep Marler from taking a meet title home across the border will be competitors such as Kenadi Krueger, Tiya Chamberlin (if she's running this week), Billie Fogarty, Sydney Teslow, and Madi Kenyon.
In my estimation, Fossil Ridge's girls need this meet more than anyone else. If the Sabercats are to take the step up to the 5A elite, they have to be able to win a meet like this, and convincingly so. Nobody else in the field faces that kind of pressure--at least not at this meet.
Thompson Valley split a squad last week, but they're showing some strength in the early stages of the season. If they bring everyone together this week, they could be a solid test for Fossil Ridge.
Roosevelt's girls kind of missed an opportunity to come up big at last weekend's CM Stampede. Perhaps that's a motivator for them this weekend. It's tough keeping up with the likes of Fossil Ridge and Thompson Valley, but that's the kind of game this team wants to hunt.
Frontier Academy looks like the best of the small schools here, but the margin is narrower than it would appear until Hannah Ellis is back and back up to speed. Ellis is listed among the entries for this week's meet, so that's a positive first indicator. Even without Ellis, though, FA is probably ahead of Lyons at this meet--especially when it comes to scoring five.
High school action begins at 4 PM. College action follows.
MEET PAGE
Drew Seidel raised some eyebrows last week at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede. What will Seidel bring this week?
This is year four of the Colorado State/Frontier Academy. Just when the meet attains stability, you have to begin wondering what will happen with the Hughes Stadium property. Such is the fate of cross country courses here in Colorado--and especially so up and down the Front Range.
For this year, though, we'll enjoy the meet.
On the boys side of things, we'll watch closely the battle among Niwot, Fossil Ridge, and possibly Loveland for top billing. Lyons figures as the top small-school program at the meet, but we'll watch Liberty Common closely to see if they're running closer to a full regular varsity than they appeared to do at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede last weekend. And, Resurrection Christian has given signals they may be a team that's more necessary to watch this year than last.
