Arapahoe Warrior XC Invitational

Arapahoe was an uncharitable host and took both of the first-place trophies home with them. The Warriors edged 5A rising power Mountain Vista by six points without the services of Connor Winter. Winter is projected to return to the lineup before long, and this looks like a good Arapahoe team this fall.

Salida's Josh Noriega turned in an outstanding 16:25 time to win the boys' race. By way of comparison, Joseph Manilafasha won this race in 16:27 two years ago and went on to have one of the best cross country seasons in recent memory. File Noriega's time away for future reference.

On the girls' side, Arapahoe, Mountain Vista, Moffat County, and Salida's Kaiti Davis all had very nice first meets out of the gate. Although Moffat County didn't show it so much the next day at Lori Fitzgerald, this team had the look of a 4A contender on Friday.

Delta Cross Country Invitational

It was a big day for the runners from the smaller schools as Basalt's Conner Roper took the boys' individual title and Crested Butte's Erin Kelly did the same with the girls' title.

While Fruita-Monument was a predictable team winner on the boys' side, second and third places were anything but predictable. Second went to the team from Basalt and third to the team from Delta. Basalt appears to have coaxed a few athletes from nearby Roaring Fork into joining their cross country program. It's not at all unthinkable that this little scenario catapults Basalt into the role of a serious contender in 3A this fall.

More interesting still was the team winner on the girls' side--Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss managed to take down Montrose, the best girls team on the western slope last fall, en route to a convincing 22-point margin of victory scoring five runners. Given that Hotchkiss only has to score four runners in 3A, that's a pretty serious statement from a small-school program.

There would seem to be a stirring among western slope small school programs.

Lobo Cross Country Invitational

This one is of interest to Colorado high schools because, for the second consecutive year, Chaparral took their teams down to Albuquerque for opening weekend.

The trip wasn't quite as successful this year. The New Mexico girls gained a measure of revenge on the Wolverines who sneaked out of town with the girls' team trophy last September. This year, Chaparral managed a fifth on the boys' side and a seventh on the girls' side. Top individual honors went to Keegan Vargo with a fith-place finish.

Lori Fitzgerald Memorial Pre-State XC Invitational

This meet has already been covered in two articles linked below. It should be noted, however, that the performances of several 2A schools who had to score four runners instead of the usual three for their classification, may have flown under the radar.

Vista Ridge Cross Country Invitational

This meet is primarily of interest to those trying to scout the 2A classification. Among individuals, Fountain Valley had a first-place finish and two second-place finishes. Tommy Manning's squad is much bigger than last year and just might be very nicely equipped to make runs at 2A titles.

Only top-ten results are posted at this time. Complete results should go up later this week.