The D'Evelyn Dash: Something Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue

Nadhia Campos had no peers on the course today.

The MileSplit crew was out and about this weekend, covering meets with a vengeance. And, one of those meets was the D'Evelyn Dash.

Meet director Erik Bell let us all know early they had intended to have an all-dirt course, but situations dictated a start and finish on the asphalt running along in front of the school. The start was more than a little reminiscent of Liberty Bell, with one person per team on the start line. Nobody thinks of putting in curbs wide enough to accommodate a cross country start any longer.

While the times were not quite what you'd expect from Liberty Bell (though a couple were close--more on that in a moment), the times were fast. Most of the racing got done before 9 AM and thus before the real heat of the day. A little bit of cool and a firm track proved to be to the competitors' liking. 

First off the start line were the Division 1 Boys. It took about 3K for the lead group to whittle itself down to Longmont's Connor McCormick and Andreas O'Malley, plus TCA's Matthew Edwards. Once established as the top three, however, the trio stayed put.

Edwards would take over the lead from McCormick for the middle third of the race. Then McCormick, having picked up a nice ride for about 2K, took over and carried things home. More than a few dentures shattered when jaws dropped right and left at McCormick's finishing time of 15:13. The shards were just being picked up when Edwards crossed in 15:21. O'Malley completed the sub-16 exercise in 15:47. 

Times settled down to more like usual the rest of the way. Longmont held the early team lead but couldn't sustain in. The Classical Academy and Arvada West came charging up hard from behind, with TCA eventually taking the win at 101 to 108. 

Five minutes after the Division 1 boys set out on their quest, the D1 girls followed. 

In this race, Chatfield was doing the charging. Reese Tucker took over the lead early and was never seriously challenged thereafter. Emerson Mullen, Chloe Cook, Melayna Barclay, and Katherine Hanson finished the scoring, all in the top 16. You can almost hear Chatfield picking up the phone to reserve a hotel room in Colorado Springs on October 29. It was, in every respect, a convincing showing. 

Mullen, not to be confused with Emerson Mullen, got two top-four finishes from Amy O'Connell (not to be confused with Amy McConnell) and Elisa Brear. TCA got two top-five finishes from Cassidy McDonald and Sawyer Wilson. Neither team, however, had the firepower down the line to keep trading strides with Chatfield. Mullen, however, did keep it close enough to pick up second-place team honors.

An interlude followed, during which a small parade took place in front of D'Evelyn High School. Did I mention that today was a major celebration and fundraiser for the D'Evelyn community?

Eventually, however, the last competitors from the D1 races cleared the course and the D2 races could begin. The D2 races were about equal parts 2A and 3A programs. 

The race to the finish in D2 boys got a little heated, but Jack Lee of SkyView Academy managed to fend off each of his challengers and hang on for a win in 16:58. Jackson Fagerlin of Resurrection and Nathan Schluessler of Peyton remained close enough most of the way to keep it interesting. 

The team score, too, stayed interesting. Eventually, however, Peyton would edge out Wiggins for team honors, 88 to 103. Both teams did well for scoring the five they usually don't have to.

As competitive as the boys' race was over the final 400 meters, the girls race was not. Freshman Nadhia Campos (get to know that name, you'll hear it again) of Vanguard ran away with all the honors with a meet-best time of 18:57. It was nearly a minute later before Ella Howe of Resurrection came across in second. 

Team-wise, D'Evelyn managed to eke out the team title at their home meet, but the Jaguars were a scant three points ahead of Peak to Peak and four points ahead of St. Mary's Academy. There may be more resolving of those issues to come later in the season. 

So, about the title of the article... Something old. How about Connor McCormick? He's a senior now and has proven himself around the track and cross country course a few times over. But, amazingly enough, his star seems still to be rising. Something new. That's easy, Nadhia Campos. The freshman made a splash in her first high school cross country meet. Campos, however, should not be mistaken for an inexperienced runner. She has a number of MileSplit profiles I'm going to have to get around to merging here soon. Something borrowed. Well, there's a frisbee golf course at Fehringer Ranch Park, but the cross country runners were borrowing the park today. Maybe it was a wee bit more like running the frisbee golfers off the course. You could get trampled chasing down a stray frisbee this morning. Something blue. I'm not sure, but maybe Andreas O'Malley felt a bit blue (his shorts were definitely blue) about running a 15:47 in August and getting only third. If that's not blue enough for you, you could go with Jack Lee. He was wearing almost all blue right down to his shorts. And, Jackson Fagerlin in second was even bluer than that.

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