As temperatures dropped at the 2 Mile 4 REAL race in Longmont, some of Colorado's best came to drop the hammer. The vast majority of those toeing the line were to clearly sharpening up for next weeks NXR-Southwest Championships in Arizona.
In the girl's race Lucca Fulkerson joined teammates Samrawit Dishon and Taylor James on the course for the first time this season, giving Niwot additional firepower on the course.
Through the early stages of the race Valor Christian's Lanie Szuch threw multiple surges on the trio of Fulkerson, Dishon, and James, though as whole the four entered the final straight nearly together. Szuch crossed the finish line first in 11:17, just ahead of Fulkerson, James, and Dishon, who finished in 11:18-11:19.
What was also impressive for the Niwot girls was their 11:28 1-5 team average.
On the boys side, the race saw a modest early pace which left nearly a half dozen boys in the race with a mile to go.
Cruz Culpepper sat back through much of the race before tearing off in the final kilometer, opening up his track stride and leaving the rest of the field and the sunset behind him. Culpepper finished in 9:40, ahead of Heritage's Cory Kennedy, who finished second in 9:43, and Fairview's Henry Murphy, who finished closely behind in 9:54.
Aside from Culpepper's win, Niwot's 2-6 runners finished within a second of each other, running between 10:09-10:10 for a 10:05 team average.