Varsity Boys: Widefield Borrows from the Track Program to Make It Stick
Going in, with TCA running a mostly sub-varsity squad, there figured to be only four boys teams in the title hunt: Alamosa, Fountain-Fort Carson, Palmer, and Widefield. It wasn't very deep into the race before exactly that scenario began playing out.
Still, it was impossible to tell at any given time which of the four teams held the upper hand. There was a delegation of FFC blue and red toward the front. Widefield's light blue was well represented at the front. Palmer scattered their white singlets with brown trim toward the front of the race. And Alamosa's maroon was equally difficult to miss.
Widefield's Cole Munoz, Ryan Outler, and Miles Mena kept the pressure on throughout, but the Gladiators also had the biggest gap to the 4 and 5 runners, so it was still impossible to tell.
One battle-within-the-battle that tilted in Widefield's favor came when Cole Munoz outkicked TCA's Canaan Lamberth with about 150 meters to go. The pair had been trading strides at the front for three miles and had long since narrowed the individual title possibilities down to two. Munoz's win gave Widefield one point in place of the two that seemed equally likely until the finish.
Matthew Roberds and Elijah DeLaCerda finished before Outler crossed next for Widefield in 5th. Next up for Widefield was Mena in 14th. Widefield was the first team with three across.
But then the other three top contenders started pushing finishers across in waves.
Closing the deal for Widefield was Jaquaireus Grant in 34th (32 team points). What you need to understand about Mr. Grant, though, is that he was running only his third cross country race--ever. Grant is much better known around Colorado Springs as a sprinter--a 22.58/49.65 guy. Today, though, he became a cross country runner in a way he probably never imagined.
Grant closed the door on three very good teams and gave the Gladitators renewed hope that they can be very competitive at the #5 position by the end of October. Given the current state of the 4A Boys race, that's a pretty big lift for Erik Nelson's guys in blue.