"It's something I've been dreaming about since freshmen year," Jack Nauman said of his state title.
And by the look on his face when he crossed the finish line Saturday, you could tell he was really feeling that his dream had just become a reality.
The Heritage Christian senior spent the first three years of his high school career eyeing the top of the podium. As a freshmen he finished 27th at State, he finished 11th as a sophomore, and he finished fourth as a junior.
As a freshman he even counted out the number of runners in the freshmen class in front of him (three) in order to determine where he stood in terms of his overall goals.
This writer can relate 100%...
But last Spring Nauman finally took that big step upwards on the podium - he captured the 1,600 and the 3,200 state titles, thus eluding to what we all saw this fall: a runner destined for a state title on the biggest stage of them all - a cross country state title.
It's when all of the best distance runners converge on one distance and hash it out.
And Nauman toppled them all.
The Heritage Christian Academy senior did what he'd done all season long: burn on all eight-cylinders.
Nauman made no contest of the boy's 2A Colorado State Championships, as he ran his dreams into reality by capturing the state title, running 15:55 - a 26-second victory.
Add that his time was 51-seconds faster than he ran as a junior.
Behind Nauman Lake County's Jace Peters had a great race of his own, finishing second in 16:21 - like Nauman, that was a considerable improvement over his performance here as a junior.
Heritage Christian's Ryan O'Loughlin had a big race finishing third in 16:33 - and all of a sudden the team race came into play...
Pre-race favorites St.Mary's countered with Lyndon Gotelaere finishing fourth in 16:39 - but before we dive into the team competition, Straburg freshman Dawit James finished fifth in 16:42 - he was one of two non-seniors to finish inside the top-10...
Moving on to the team race...
Heritage Christian had the lean with two in front of St. Mary's No. 1, but St. Mary's countered with Jackson Neppl finishing seventh to keep it close.
James Beam's 24th-place finish put the lean in favor of St. Mary's, though Heritage Christian countered with Ian Molgaard finishing 41st.
But - hot on his heels was St. Mary's' fourth - Alex Bodnar - who closed the door with a 51st-place finish.
St. Mary's took the team title by a slim nine-point margin, tallying 73 points. Heritage Christian was a close second with 82, while Peyton nearly stole the show with 86 points.
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