Once Sydney Harris broke free from Kaiti Davis, there was no mystery about who would win the Tri-Peaks girls' title. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Both entered the race as favorites. Both led wire-to-wire. Both opened enormous gaps on second place. Both figure to be major players two weeks from now in the 3A state championship races.
Meet Josh Noriega and Sydney Harris, the 2010 Tri-Peaks League meet champions. On a day where heat flattened most of the performances, Noriega and Harris made believers of the field. Noriega appeared impervious to the heat, winning in 15:59. Harris may have felt the heat a little more, turning in a 19:41 as her winning time.
Neither one, however, could propel their teams to victory. Harris's Pirates went to third in the team standings, behind The Classical Academy and Salida. Noriega's Spartans dropped a three-point team contest to The Classical Academy boys.
Salida did, however, get a large boost from the return of Lukas Garcia to the lineup. Last year's sixth-place finisher at state finished second at the league meet with a time of 17:30.
For The Classical Academy, it was a matter of occupying exactly half of the top 12 places in both races. The TCA boys were led by Kyle Ross in fourth at 17:48. The girls were led by Meredith Sloan in third at 20:53. Although several of the top Titans were out of uniform for this event, those who were running came on a mission to win the team titles without names like Simkins and Stableford in the lineup.
The Tri-Peaks Leauge meet offered something of a sneak preview of next Friday's combined 3A Region 2 and 2A Region 2 meet in Fountain. All of the Tri-Peaks schools except Buena Vista will reconvene at the combined regional. While the 3A regional is comprised solely of Tri-Peaks teams plus Alamosa, the 2A regional will add Plainview, Kiowa, Peyton, Rocky Ford, Pikes Peak Christian, and South Baca to fill out its roster of teams.
Fountain Valley easily topped the other 2A schools in attendance at the Tri-Peaks league meet, taking home third in the boys' race and fifth in the girls' race. Both Danes teams should figure in the competition for state berths out of 2A Region 2.