A smile stretched across Allison Pippert's face.
She took purposeful strides up the grassy hill, and she had every reason to be enjoying her Saturday morning.
The Stargate junior was only halfway through the 2A/3A race at the St. Vrain Cross Country Invitational, but she was gone.
With around a mile-and-a-half to go Pippert held a lead of just under 30-seconds. And the gap between her and her chasers only grew over the final half of the race.
Pippert cruised over the course in dominating fashion. She stopped the clock on her solo effort in 18:40 - a 58-second victory.
The win marked her second-consecutive victory this season, and it was just three-seconds shy of her 18:37 performance at Colorado 3A Region 3 Cross Country Championships on this very course last year.
And the Stargate junior wasn't the only one running this course to perfection.
Behind her Resurrection Christian freshman Elizabeth Roberts stormed to a runner-up finish after running a conservative first-half. Roberts ran 19:38, which was 18-seconds ahead of Liberty Common's Amelia Harkey, who also dipped under 20-minutes, running 19:58.
In the team race Timnath looked really good through three - their freshmen trio of Addison Geraets, Lily Wale, and Emily Bakke finished 6-8-9, giving them three before anyone else.
But it was Resurrection Christian's depth that would win the day.
Joy Koole joined Roberts inside the top-10, finishing 10th, while Anika Brolsma and Maggie Komberec finished 20th, and 22nd, and Joey Komberec closed the door with a 25th-place finish.
Resurrection Christian claimed the team title with 70-points.
Meanwhile Heritage Christian nearly stole the show. While they won't need five scorers at State, they still held their own, proving that they've got great depth as well. They finished second with 78-points. Additionally they had the best 1-5 split of any team inside the top-10, with a 1:30 gap.
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