It doesn't get any better than 15-points.
The Niwot quintet of Addison Ritzenhein, Mia Prok, Avalon Beltran, Olivia Alessandrini, and Cayden Justice put on a show in the desert.
A year ago they won the Sweepstakes race at the Desert Twilight XC Festival, and while they defended their title this year, they achieved perfection this time around - going 1-2-3-4-5.
15 points.
That's the equivalent of a hole-in-one for golfers, or Radiohead's OK Computer album, or John L. Parker's Once A Runner.
Ritzenhein led the way for the Cougars, torching the field, and the clock, running 16:44 - that was a 47-second victory, and the sixth-fastest time run on the course over the past decade.
The win also marked Ritzenhein's third of the season.
Prok was the runner-up here, running 17:31, which was just ahead of Beltran's 17:38. Alessandrini and Justice closed the door to capture the coveted 15-point tally, running 17:50, and 17:54.
Alamosa's Madeline Castillo was the only other Coloradan to sneak inside the top-10, finishing ninth in 18:09. The performance helped lift Alamosa to a fourth-place finish in the team race.
Several days ago MileSplit released its latest National Rankings, which landed Air Academy in the No. 1 spot, with Niwot falling to No. 2.
But with 15-points... I'm catching vibes that Niwot came to Arizona to make a point...
On the boy's side of the competition Rocco Culpepper nearly had the W. The Niwot sophomore finished second in 15:11 - just one-second off the victory. Teammate Quinn Sullivan finished a few strides back in fourth, running 15.17.
The ThunderRidge duo of Owen Casselman and Ben Lee joined him inside the top-10, finishing ninth and 10th, running 15:23, and 15:25.
While Niwot and ThunderRidge had two inside the top-10, it was Niwot's depth that made the difference here - they went on to win the team title, tallying 47-points. ThunderRidge took second with 127 to give Colorado a 1-2 finish.