Think You Know Frustration?

Allie McLaughlin is Air Academy's most recent state champion, but there's more to the story. Air Academy shares an order of cross country frustration known to only one other high school in the state. Colorado Track XC file photo.

 

In many respects, the modern era of Colorado high school cross country began in 1977. Beginning that fall, the race distance shifted from two miles to three miles. One year later, girls started competing in cross country in Colorado. Four years later, the race distance would shift to the current standard of five kilometers.

Since the advent of the three mile and 5K race distances, several dynasties have come and gone. We've seen the center of power shift between several different high schools, shift more rapidly in some classifications than others, and seen schools rise and fall only to rise again.

But this article isn't about the dynasties, it's about the oh-so-close-to-dynasties. It's about frustration on an order that only a couple of schools have known in a first-hand sort of way.

Over the last 33 years of high school cross country (That's a lot of years, if I may be permitted that observation. Those of us who've been around the entire time are starting to get a little creaky.), two Colorado schools have had a special corner on the market of frustration. Those two schools have been Air Academy High School and Pagosa Springs High School.

In those 33 years, both Pagosa Springs and Air Academy have brought home the silver trophy five times. For Air Academy, the boys have done it four times and the girls once. In 1997, the boys and the girls did it in the same year. For Pagosa, it's been two seconds for the boys and, more recently, three for the girls.

And, both teams have been agonizingly close. In 1993, Air Academy's boys had the singular heartbreak of falling to cross-district rival Rampart by two points. In 1994 they came back and missed by seven points.

Pagosa's boys also missed a state title in 1993 by two points. The Pagosa girls, on the other hand, seem to specialize in agonizingly close near misses. In 1999, the girls were eight points out of first. In 2004, they were six points out of first. And, in 2006, they were 18 points out of first.

If you tally top ten finishes over the the 33 years of the modern era, Air Academy has 25. But Pagosa Springs has the Kadets whipped on this count with 30 top ten finishes.

Taking another yardstick to the frustration, we could tally eight top five finishes for Air Academy. Once again, however, Pagosa has the upper hand with an amazing 13 top five finishes (and, of course, no titles).

Air Academy has had the consolation of boasting two individual champions--Ian Burrell and Allie McLaughlin--in the modern era. Pagosa Springs, on the other hand, has never had an individual bring home the first-place medal. Close, but not first.

Perhaps the consolation for Pagosa Springs has been the scenic bus ride over Wolf Creek Pass each year coming and going to the state meet. Or, perhaps spectacular scenery isn't such great consolation at such times. Maybe especially not so in the dark.

But wait....

In this state championship of accumulated frustration there is also an honorable mention category. While Air Academy and Pagosa Springs have been most afflicted with frustration over the years, several other schools have had sufficient opportunity to bemoan the cruelty of fate as well.

Among the schools on the honor roll of frustration are Boulder, Buena Vista, Colorado Springs Christian, Coronado, Evergreen, Faith Christian, Heritage, Niwot, and Rocky Mountain. Boulder, Buena Vista, and Evergreen each have a cross country state championship dating back to the 60s, but none in the modern era.

Colorado Springs Christian has several third-place efforts and a couple of seconds. The latter second-place finish came in 2005 and was by a single point. That loss was made more painful for the Lions by the fact that their nearly season-long #1 runner inexplicably broke down at the state meet. CSCS came into the meet as prohibitive favorites, but nothing is ever guaranteed.

Buena Vista has simply had the misfortune of having their best teams coincide with years that a couple of other teams--namely Lake County and D'Evelyn--were riding the crest of their own dynasties.

And so, while we've highlighted the pain of a few schools in the preceding paragraphs, I trust it's understood in such a way as to highlight the accomplishments of a few schools who are short of trophies to show for it.

Air Academy and Pagosa Springs--the best Colorado high school cross country programs never to win a state title.