It's not the first regional to end up this way, but few have been more emphatically so than this one.
4A Region 2 girls was dominated up front by three teams. Of the top 23 places, only Aubrey Surage of Lewis-Palmer and Baylie Koonce of Ponderosa managed to slip in without wearing an Air Academy, Palmer Ridge, or Discovery Canyon singlet.
Hence, the team scoring wasn't all that surprising. Air Academy had 27. Palmer Ridge had 57. Discovery Canyon had 73. Lewis-Palmer would snag the remaining state berth with 123 points. Only L-P really wasn't as close as that scoring would suggest.
Air Academy rode the 1-2 finish of Tatum Miller and Ella Chura to their title. The Kadet scoring was completed by Brooke Moss in 7th, Zoe Lachnidt in 8th, and Dylan Teeples in 9th. The Kadets were nothing short of convincing. Five in the top nine usually is.
Palmer Ridge placed four in the top 13 via the finishes of Jocelyn Millican, Katie Wotta, Maren Busath, and Anna Busath, but it wasn't nearly enough to keep pace with the Kadets.
Discovery Canyon put Ellie Linnenburger in fifth, but the flood of Purple Thunder didn't begin until place 14. By that time, the top two team places had been pretty well decided.
Ponderosa's Baylie Koonce led for the first two miles, but it proved to be a bit of a deceptive lead. Miller and Chura were simply waiting for the lead Mustang to show signs of slipping. The moment she did, the two Kadets went by and continued on to a 1-2 finish. Eventually, five would pass Koonce--the two Kadets, Millican, Surage, and Linnenburger.