Ancient Trails (Cortez) Cross Country Invitational

How good are the Mancos girls? Nearly good enough to give 4A Montrose a run for the team title at the Ancient Trails Invitational. And that meant scoring five, as opposed the scoring the 2A norm of three. Kelsey Corbin continues to rack up the wins. Eric Lewis makes it a clean sweep for Mancos in the individual titles. A nice day to be a Blue Jay (even if there's never been a real Blue Jay within 100 miles of Mancos)!

Andy Myers Cross Country Invitational

Smokin' fast times--as usual at the Andy Myers meets. The time posted by Allie Parks should get a little attention among 4A girls. A level course and lots of asphalt will do that for you. Cherokee Trail and Greeley Central make team statements. Monarch and Loveland go 2-3 in both boys and girls.

Chris Severy Invitational

Chris Keleher always provides a sadistic course. Times this year suggest this one ranks high on the scale of sadism. Durango edges Fruita Monument (an improved team, by the way) for the boys title and Moffat County for the girls title. Rogan Brown (Durango) beats Woody Seagren (Fruita Monument) by 15 seconds and the boys race and Crested Butte's Erin Kelly lights up a strong girls field.

Dakota Ridge Cross Country Invitational

Many schools approach this as an opportunity for some lower varsity and near-varsity athletes to get some solid race experience. Other teams lay it on the line here. All in all, it makes for an interesting meet. David Shearon of Battle Mountain and Bre Hemming of Ponderosa post the top times on the afternoon. Fort Collins, running a partial varsity squad, wins the boys Division 1 title, while Green Mountain claims the girls Division 1 title. Division 2 titles went to two western slope schools--Battle Mountain (boys) and Glenwood Springs (girls).

Doherty Spartan XC Invitational

Doherty invites a bunch of schools to the party, and then takes home their own girls trophy. Jordan Bloesser wins in 20:15 on a strength course. Ridgeview Academy dominates the boys division of yet another meet, though the individual title goes to Spencer Wenck of Palmer Ridge (the new school in the Lewis-Palmer district--no seniors this year).

Falcon Cross Country Invitational

It looks like this was one of only two Front Range meet that actually took place on Saturday. But it was a sharply diminished field that actually toed the starting line. Some of those on the starting line likely wished their school had bailed out as well. Such was not the case with Cheyenne Mountain. Standing up to the elements, the Indians swept both meet titles in convincing fashion. Meet winners Mitch Kasyon and Dani Grossman won't remember the times, but they will long remember the experience.

John Thornton Invitational

Never heard of the John Thornton Invitational? There's a reason; it's in Blanding, Utah. Never heard of Blanding, Utah? There's a reason...

Montezuma-Cortez and Mancos have heard of Blanding. And Eric Lewis of Mancos got his first of two individual meet titles last week at this meet. And, the two Montezuma County schools got an eyeful of Utah's mostly under-the-radar female distance-running phenom, Macee Nielson of Monticello. Never heard of Monticello, Utah...?

Legend Cross Fest

This would be the other of the two Front Range meets with a meet director brave or foolhardy (take your pick, nobody's counting votes, anyway) enough to keep the meet on. Of special note here is the fact the Chaparral perfect scored the boys division of the meet. Apparently, nobody told the Wolverines to take note of the conditions. Rikki Gonzales (Rangeview) outdueled Allie Morgan ( Discovery Canyon--pay attention to her over the next few weeks, her season's fortunes have been on a sharp incline of late) for the individual title, while Arapahoe ran away with the team title.

Pat Amato Classic

Let's hope Rampart has something left in the tank. It was a very nice week for the Rams and that would have a lot to do with the fact that they toppled Cherry Creek's boys at this meet. And, they did it in convincing fashion, led by a 3-5 finish by Ryan Derrick and Anthony Duran.

Cherry Creek, lifted by the long-awaited return of Clare Gallagher, beats Legacy for the girls team title, though Ivie Gonsalves wins the individual title. Of special note here, however, is the emergence of another freshman phenom--Brooke Genovese of Grandview goes 19:02 for second.

Rampart Cross Country Invitational

Yes, Rampart ran twice this week. Yes, they won twice. Somebody break this crew up! Actually, though, this win was a much tighter affair than the triumph over Cherry Creek three days later. Rampart had to go to a tie-breaker with Palmer to take home their own trophy. Pine Creek's girls left all others girls in their wake en route to a convincing team title and a very nice 18:24 winning time for freshman Heather Bates.