Boys Championship: Sprout Outlasts Allred
There wasn't anybody watching who was surprised to see Cole Sprout and Easton Allred at the front of the boys championship race. The question in the mind of most, though, concerned who would prevail.
Sprout and Allred took the luxury of setting a fairly pedestrian pace through the first mile. Honestly, they could probably have run even slower than they did and still nobody would have dared to have gone around. As it was, they clipped through the first mile in about 4:48.
That's not exactly slow, but neither does it push many contenders out of the running.
Sprout and Allred, however, picked up the pace on the second mile and forced a few hard decisions among the lead pack. It wasn't long, though, before the lead pack had dwindled to two. The race was going to come down between the two, much as everyone had expected.
On the last finger of the course before the big turn back to the finish at the soccer fields, it was still Sprout and Allred going shoulder-to-shoulder. Sprout, however, would have more left over the last 400 or so meters and would claw his way to a 14:39. That would provide him a bit more than two seconds margin of victory at the finish.
Only a few seconds back were Austin Vancil and Connor Ohlson of Dakota Ridge. Colorado had swept the top four individual places.
Dakota Ridge clung to the advantage Vancil and Ohlson provided . Jacob White finished 24th, Ben Morrin 60th, and Ben Piegat 71st to wrap up the DR scoring. After non-team-scoring individuals were eliminated, that left Mark Stenbeck's crew with 107 points.
15 points behind them, however, was not Mountain Vista, but American Fork. The traditional Utah dominant program raced 17 points ahead of Vista Nation, 122 to 139.
Despite Easton Allred's varsity presence, allowed by NXN though not permitted by CHSAA, Mountain Vista was not able to climb into second. So, Jonathan Dalby's crew waits another week to see if they can snag an at-large bid to the big dance.
Davis (Utah) was fourth, but probably too far back to get any at-large attention.
Other Colorado team finishes included Centaurus in 7th, Durango in 8th, Heritage in 12th, Palmer Ridge 18th, Legend 19th, Niwot 21st, Boulder 23rd, and Fairview 25th.
Ares Reading, Dylan Schubert, Mason Norman, and Erik Le Roux each added top-15 individual finishes.