With a mile to go it was still anyone's race, or it at least appeared that way. But Green Mountain's Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos clearly had other ideas.
After rounding the corner by the bridge leading to the finish for the final lap, Touhy-Gaydos pressed the pedal to the floor, stringing out the pack. The glue that once held them together was losing its grip, but as the the final mile wore on Bryce Reeburgh clawed his way back to within Touhy-Gaydos' shadow.
Touhy-Gaydos and Reeburgh were both one week removed from big individual wins, as Touhy-Gaydos won the Lake County Invite in a course record, while Reeburgh won the Washington Park Invite.
The two Week 2 winners now were finding themselves battling to cross the finish line first, again.
The final mile saw Touhy-Gaydos charging forward with all his thoughts in front of him, while Reeburgh was in hot pursuit, but the day belonged to the Green Mountain junior.
Down the final straight Touhy-Gaydos had the race in hand. He closed his eyes, and spread his arms wide in victory, feeling the relief of being the first to cross the finish line. He captured his second consecutive victory of the season, running just off the course record in 16:30. Reeburgh was several strides back in 16:36.
Behind them Arvada West's Dominic Danborn kicked hard to finish third in 16:40, while the Conifer duo of Zack Gacnik and Topi Alahuhta finished fourth and fifth, in 16:47, and 16:50.
Dominic Danborn led Arvada West to the team title.
The team race was all purple, with 5A No. 10 Arvada West taking the cake in fashion. They poured three into the top 10, Gabe Schultz, and David Rhoades joining Danborn. And their No. 4, Max Link was just outside in 11th.
Arvada West tallied just 47 points for a 67-point victory. Conifer was a surprise runner-up, tallying 114 points, while Green Mountain took third with 138.