Varsity Boys: Woe To Those In Rampart's Path
When Rampart opened the season, the Rams looked very solid through 4, but the big question was how they would fare at #5.
As of this meet, that's officially no longer a question. Freshman Ben Conlin has stepped up in a huge way. Conlin ended up in this meet in 10th place. Better still, he was only five seconds back of Afeworki Zeru, Rampart's #4, at 16:48. And nobody is ever going to accuse this course of being a fast track.
Rampart scored 2-5-6-7-10 and had things well under control at every stage of the race, at least once the mad dash across the parking lot was over.
The battle for individual honors took a good deal longer to decide.
Initially, Levi Kilian--perhaps in an adrenaline-enhanced celebration of his newfound varsity eligibility--took it out hard to the lead. That lasted perhaps half a mile before the pack caught up with him and Kilian found a new, and slightly less prominent place in the field.
Attrition gradually thinned the lead pack down to two, and that a little before the completion of the first of the two main circuits of the course. At the midway point, the battle for the individual title was clearly down to Rampart's Connor McCabe and Elizabeth's David Fine. McCabe held the lead, but there was no measure of comfort to be taken in his margin.
Fine was just a bit stronger at the top of the long, gradual climb on the second loop and increased his lead with a solid downhill glide over the next half mile. Had Fine faltered, McCabe was close enough to pick up the pieces, but there was no falter in Fine on this day. Fine's 16:09 beat McCabe by 11 seconds.
Mountain Vista's B team made their presence known enough to claim second, but it was a distant second. Despite an 8th-place finish for Brody Dempsey, Rampart outpointed Mountain Vista, 30 to 106. And it didn't even feel that close.
Levi Kilian would end up 13th at 17:02 in his Heritage Christian Academy varsity debut.