Polson Ranch: Raising A Dust Storm


Mason Norman Wins The Battle; Castle View Wins The War

The race might have been even better, from both the indiviudal and team perspective, if Legend hadn't sent a few of their top guys down to Desert Twilight, but nobody seemed to think the race was suffering too greatly from that.

Although Derek Fearon came into the race with a rather impressive 15:36 time from Liberty Bell, he never really threatened for the lead. By the end of the race, Fearon was nipping at the heels of second place, but first place had long since been settled.

The actual battle for first lasted for a little over a mile. Castle View's Jared Wright and TCA's Mason Norman traded strides for a while, testing each other's will. But, slowly at first, then more obviously later, it became apparent that Norman's wheels were going to take over.

Norman kept a steady pace throughout and eventually opened 27 seconds of lead on Wright. Norman's 15:53, interestingly, is an altitude PR for last year's 3A state champion. TCA tries to keep long stretches of hard surface out of their season plan.

In terms of the team scoring, though, Norman's triumph over Wright in the battle for first place mattered very little.

Castle View, a team whose time appears to have arrived, won rather convincingly. Wright took second, Aidan Scott 9th, William Merrick 16th, Connor Baty 20th, and Hal Fotinos 27th. And, if you think these guys are good this year, you may want to stop to consider what they might be like next year when they're all back. Hmmmm.....

Castle View's 74 points gave the Sabercats 20 points of margin on second-place Rock Canyon. Nice finishes by Fearon, Wesley Beckham, and Caleb Jaramillo gave the Jaguars an advantage through three runners, but Rock Canyon couldn't match Castle View's depth.

For Castle View, it served as a nice piece of validation of their ranking as the 5A #5 team earlier this week.

The first six places all went to 5A programs before TCA broke the run in seventh.

Girls race summary next page.