Cherry Creek's Parker Wolfe captured his second win of the season.
Parker Wolfe navigated his way through the sea of bodies, which contained boys and girls. With his head slightly tilted back, his blue eyes scanned for openings as he, as well as nearly a half a dozen other boys that made up the front pack, searched for openings while they attempted to cruise on near five-minute pace along the sides of the 20-foot wide path.
Nearly an hour earlier rain trickled down from above as thunder brewed and lightning flashed across the sky. The inclement weather put a damper on what was to be a stellar evening at the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational. Races were not only delayed, but also shifted around.
What was originally supposed to be a 20 minute gap between the start of the boy's race and the start of the girls was now seven minutes.
The gap, however, proved to create a perfect storm, as the the front of the boy's race caught nearly half of the girl's field before the two mile. Naturally, chaos ensued. The spectator-friendly course, which included multiple loops, remained that - spectator friendly. But for the competitors it became an additional challenge, as boy's had to dart between and around the girls, and girls had to make sure they weren't blocking their way.
Relief came in the final half mile, however, where the boys turned left to head home, and the girl's continued on for another lap. After reaching the 2-mile around 10:30, Wolfe was ready to pounce.
"We have to maneuver around the girl's, which was challenging," Wolfe explained. "But I picked up the last mile."
Wolfe used the opening to make a decisive strike, and there were no negotiable shadows to keep pace. The Cherry Creek sophomore pressed the pedal to the floor and telescoped away for the win - his second of the 2018 season, finishing in 16:13. Clearly, he had a great summer's worth of training.
Behind him Air Academy's Dillon Powell charged late but ran out of real estate, running second in 16:1, while early leader Cole Nash held off a late charge from Derek Fearo to finish third in 16:24. Fearo finished in the same time.
The theme of the weekend seemed to be teams not running their full squads. Many top-tier athletes sat this one out. But not everyone took the week off.
*Heritage took the boy's title with a decisive 76-point win. Fairview took second with 122, while Rock Canyon finished third with 156.
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