Rampart Dominates Boys Race
The varsity boys race had all the suspense and drama of a Clemson - Kent State football game, which is to say not very much.
Connor McCabe came in with pre-race favorite status, but he seemed intent on sharing that with his teammates. The foursome of McCabe, Jacob Dewey, Afeworki Zeru, and Sadio Fenner camped out at the front of the field through the first of two circuits of the criterium course.
Fenner fell back a little on the second lap and was briefly in danger of being gobbled up by a ravenous back of Wolverines (Chaparral) and Eagles (Pine Creek), but Fenner put any hopes of an easy meal out of range with a strong finishing surge.
Zeru, McCabe, and Dewey might as well have held hands across the finish line (except that that is a disqualifiable offense in cross country). All three finished in 13:01 and change. Fenner crossed in 13:10.
All the rest of 5A wants to know how far back #5 was, so I'll tell you. On this day, #5 was freshman Ben Conlin at 13:33. Given that this was Conlin's first high school race, that's probably not comforting news. Aaron Dewey was also comfortably under 14 minutes, and Bryan Lantzy almost made it there.
In the final team tally, Rampart had 22 team points to 68 for Chaparral. If that feels decisive as you read it, it felt all that and more as you saw it.