Let's just say that Eleanor Fulton quickly erased any doubt about the outcome of the Division II girls race. Photo by Jeff McCoy.
Many results went according to form at Liberty Bell. A few did not.
Nobody was especially surprised by Albuquerque Academy taking first in the Division I boys race. And, Fort Collins showed that they've come a long way down the road of maturity as team in the last year by finishing a solid second. Los Alamos was third and, only a point behind them, was Smoky Hill. For those keeping track, this marks the seventh time in the last nine years that Albuquerque Academy has won this meet. All seven Chargers went under 16:30, making their challenge a little difficult to answer.
It gets a little worse if you look at the places in the JV race for Division I. AA took three of the top four places in that race, all 16:47 or faster and all at least 30 seconds faster than the rest of the field except for a Fairview runner in second (a transfer rule case, perhaps?).
One surprise, though perhaps not a huge one, in the Division I boys race was Chaparral's Keagan Vargo running away with the individual title. On a day when heat made a difference, Vargo dealt with the heat better than the rest to win in 15:35, three seconds ahead of Caleb Rubalcaba of Rio Rancho (New Mexico).
In Division I girls, Fort Collins dealt a stunning blow to the state championship hopes of a lot of teams. Unleashing Erin Hooker and Marci Witczak, and getting solid support from a solid group of younger team members, the Lambkins blistered the field, leaving second-place Cherry Creek 49 points in arrears. Third-place Boulder was another three points back. Nobody had an answer for Fort Collins in this race (although Monarch still appears to have an answer, based on their performance in the Division II race). True to pre-race prognostications, New Mexico's Julia Foster ran away with the individual title.
Moving to Division II boys, we find the meet's most stunning upset. For two weeks, Monarch has looked invincible. Somebody forgot to send that memo to Heritage (a team I foolishly overlooked in my own pre-race previews). Running on their home course, Heritage's boys didn't let Monarch within range, soundly beating the Coyotes at scoring positions 3, 4, and 5 for the title. The 5A boys race suddenly got a whole lot more interesting. By way of comparison to the preceding two weeks, Monarch was simply flat. And that probably elevates the hopes of a whole lot of 5A teams. Whoever said this season was going to be uninteresting?
Will Kincaid, the pre-race favorite, took individual honors in 15:34 (the best boys' time of the day), but not without a little heat from Keifer Johnson of ThunderRidge.
A major piece of news came from the Division II girls race, where Eleanor Fulton just surpassed a long-standing course record originally set by Lize Brittin of Fairview back in the mid 80s. That record might well have been obliterated had the temperatures been more cooperative. For now, though, the record is officially Fulton's at 17:33.8.
While Highlands Ranch is showing steady improvement in their overall team time, the meet title still went to a very strong, very balanced Monarch squad. Monarch managed four in the top 11, all five in the top 18, and all five at 19:36 or faster. Pine Creek dropped a tie-breaker to Highlands Ranch for second in the Division II team race.
I'm hoping the Colorado running community can forgive me for overlooking Aubree Worden of Scottsbluff, who blasted the Division III girls field by almost a minute to win the individual title in 18:10. Janelle Martinez and Allie Parks of Greeley Central led the Colorado contingent. Greeley Central narrowly defeated Evergreen for the team title. Evergreen had Maura O`Brien back in the fold for this one, but you have to figure she's going to gain a step or two on the rest of the field over the next few weeks. Centaurus was surprisingly strong on third--strong enough to warrant some attention in the next set of polls to come out. 4A girls figures to be very interesting before it's all over.
That ringing shot across the bow you heard from the Division III boys race was fired by Broomfield. Running without Cam Jukkala, the Eagles still slipped by Evergreen for the team title with a nicely balanced effort. Evergreen and Laramie were both close behind, but this one clearly signals that Broomfield is part of the equation the solves that 4A boys state championship next month. Moffat County continues to get nice 1-2 finishes out of Chris Zirkle and Alfredo Lebron, but needs more help at the other scoring positions to be in state title contention in another month.
Moving to the small schools division, Alamosa didn't surprise many folks who saw their domination of the pre-state meet. Basalt and University were able to keep it from getting way out of hand, but unable to mount a serious threat to Alamosa. Chad Palmer edged Conner Roper for the individual title.
Among the girls, Samantha Berggren laid down her challenge to the 3A girls field by edging Jenny DeSouchet of Alamosa for the girls title. Both are seniors and both figure to be in the mix at the end of the season. Estes Park, still without the services of Kim Hansen, handled the field nicely to take home the team title. Kent Denver was a surprisingly strong third, just behind Holy Family in second.
Digging a little deeper into the 2A girls race reveals a new potential challenger to Nederland for 2A supremacy. Lutheran-Parker finished a strong fifth to Nederland's fourth in the Division IV standings. The scoring did, however, encompass five runners instead of the usual 2A three. Scoring three, Nederland gets a lot more breathing room.
Complete Meet Results, Additional Coverage