Varsity Boys: A West Defends Home Turf and Sidewalk
Coming into the afternoon, there was a decent amount of speed at the front of the pack of the virtual meet. When feet hit the grass, at the mile, Skyview Academy Senior Jimmy Scavuzzo was leading a pack of purple, green, black and red singlets. By mile two, the pack has whittled down to Mason Brown from Eaglecrest, Colin Berndt from Arvada West and Ryan Lehmuth from Jefferson Academy.
From a distance it looked like Lehmuth made a move first during the third mile. Brown let Lehmuth go a little, and then kicked him down in the last four hundred meters to take a fairly decisive meet win in 16:20. Lehmuth lowered his Jefferson Academy school record for second in 16:27, and Berndt took 3rd in 16:30.
Arvada West has, over the last few years, developed into a bit of a cross country powerhouse, both in the city of Arvada and in the state. As such, they have made it exceptionally difficult to show up to their home meet and win. Whereas some teams lay low a bit the week they are hosting, the Wildcats seem to relish the moment and defend their soil.
After Berndt came junior Drew Craig in 16:56 for 6th place. Senior Andres Perez dropped a 17:09 for 13th. Jacob Valdez finished 23rd and Nicholas Oliveira finished 38th to round out the scoring. How does a team win a cross country meet you ask? The answer is simple. If you want to lower your overall stress level about winning, simply win at each scoring position. The only position battles Arvada West didn't win were #1 and #2, and both of those were by only by one spot.
Consequently, it comes as no surprise that A West's 83 points was well in front of Overland's 109 in second. Eaglecrest, which won the battles at 1 and 2, couldn't keep pace through the rest of the order.