Eye black was out in force at yesterday's state meet. Custer County's Valerie Stark (left) took things up a notch and did a Tim Tebow. Photo by Jeff McCoy.
I chuckled a little when I looked at the forums this morning. No surprise there with the call for passing the responsibility for timing and scoring to the state meet to someone a bit more local (maybe a bit more accessible). Timing and scoring is a job--like a lot of other things--and human error can creep in causing someone to forget to post those results. But when that someone isn't accessible to make the fix or point to the solution, then it becomes a little problematic.
On to happier notes...
This article is going to have to tide over my urge to write until results actually get posted, so here goes...
Getting out of the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds is still an issue and, unfortunately, still seems to bring out the worst in a few people. Everyone has a reason to want to be at the front of the line. Folks, unless it's a medical emergency, please don't assume your reason trumps all others. Thank you.
It is nice to know that high school cross country can draw this kind of crowd, though. I love seeing the gowing crowds at cross country and track and field events.
In what other sport do athletes spend themselves so completely and yet maintain such focus that they will fall before the finish, stumble, get up again, and eventually crawl across the finish line?
This year's state meet had the usual assortment of competitors who couldn't finish the race. And a couple of the top teams got bit by it. Probably no team's hopes took a bigger hit than Monarch's when Taylor Floming dropped with about a quarter mile to go.
As I made the rounds of my coaching friends before the race, I heard a lot of tales of sickness--a lot more than I recall hearing in previous years. Last year, we had kids getting sick all season long, but the swine flu--or whatever it was--had started to abate a little by state week. This year, the common theme from the coaches was it all hit at the most inopportune moment possible.
The 5A girls race was awesome, as expected. I caught a few moments of it while our girls were warming up and didn't need to deal with the distraction of an amped up coach. I love this picture shot by Jeff McCoy because it shows how into it we get as parents in high school cross country (In what other sport can you do this?!), and it shows a pretty placid face on Kelsey Lakowske.
Photo by Jeff McCoy.
Lakowske has been through a lot in the last year. I salute her efforts to make it back to the top of her game and wish her well at Foot Locker.
And, how about that undefeated season by Spencer Wenck? It really isn't fair to compare 4A boys times with the 5A boys times because of the way the wind came up after the first four races, but Mr. Wenck definitely left a lasting impression on many of us.
What happened behind Wenck, however, was just as interesting. Do you want to win races as a team? Then take a lesson from the tactics used by the Cheyenne Mountain boys.
Cheyenne Mountain's guys stuck together, for the most part, and held back very conservatively on the first loop around the fairgrounds course. On the second loop, they punished people and essentially finished with half the team score of anyone else. You think it's easy to coach testosterone-laced boys to race that way? Try it sometime. CM made an art form of it on Saturday.
Mark Roberts has to feel a little like, "What does it take to win a gold trophy?!" The Lyons trophy case is spilling over with silver trophies. It all seemed to start about the fall of 2007. Between cross country and track, there's a lot of the close-but-no-cigar kind of frustration piling up in that program. I'm sure Mark could cut you a nice deal on a silver trophy with a runner mounted on it if you're in need of one.
What Colorado cross country coach do you least want to go up against when the stakes are big? My vote goes for Chris Suppes. I'm not sure if there's some dragon in his ancestry or what, but he breathes fire at all the right times. We've been scorched by it a time or two ourselves, and both Fort Collins teams were on top of their races yesterday. By the way, I'll add that Fort Collins was one of the schools scrambling to find new people to call on in the face of illnesses in the week leading up to state. Well done, Lambkins!
Another well done goes out to the Nederland girls. When Rebecca (Bex, I hear her called) Hermann and Kelley Robinson graduate, there will have to be girls to step up and take their places, but this has been a dominating run of three years for the Panthers. Kelley Robinson avenged her second-place finish from last year with a very nice run this year. Whatever was troubling Nederland at regionals got worked out in the nine days before state.
And finally--awards. We need a fix there, and it involves all of us--meet directors, athletes, parents, and coaches alike. A bigger amplification system would be a good start. Somehow, a crowd of people pressing in around a small set of stands with everyone carrying on their own private little conversations isn't working. I liked that amphitheater model at Kent Denver, but that I don't think that's going to happen at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds. We need to ask people to sit down and pipe down, but, unfortunately, sitting on a compacted gravel parking area isn't as pleasant of an experience as sitting on grass. Solutions, anyone? The medalists and team winners deserve better.