At two miles into the race, Erin Hooker challenges Sarah Fakler for the lead. Photo by Alan Versaw.
There is a lot on the line, literally and emotionally, when teams travel to Nike Cross Regionals. There are always more teams that go home suffering the sting of disappointment than those who go on.
The human heart is able to distinguish those triumphs which are won with little effort from those won at significant cost. And whether we like it or not, it attaches signficance in accord with the cost at which those triumphs are won. It is that fact more than any other that keeps teams coming back year after year for the struggle when the desired prizes are so few.
For Fort Collins, it was a case of one team going home elated and another disappointed--but that's still better than most teams can say for their Nike Cross Regionals performances.
Through one mile of the boys championship race, Fort Collins had the look of a team on the verge of revisiting the glory of 2010. But the race covers 3.1 miles, not one.
By the end of the second mile, the lead group was peppered with the blue and orange of American Fork and the brown and gold of Davis. Griffin Hay and Jeff Abbey, who had spearheaded the Fort Collins charge through the first mile, were already well out of contention.
Individually, it was Bernie Montoya and Luis Martinez threatening to undo one another. Eventually, Martinez broke Montoya's strength and cruised to a four-second margin of victory over Danny Carney. A spent Montoya faded to tenth. Carney's finish, however, was remarkable in that three short weeks ago he staggered to the finish line over the last 200 meters of the Colorado state championships after building a seemingly insurmountable lead to that point.
Team-wise, the final mile of the race belonged to American Fork. Just as they did last year, the Cavemen utterly dominated the team scoring, placing all five of their scoring runners in the top 20, led by Clayton Young's 15:14 in third and Brayden Mclelland's 15:21 in fourth. The day's point tally for American Fork stopped at just 45 points.
As strong as Davis was, they were no match for American Fork. Brad Nye finished sixth in 15:25 to pace the Davis attack, but the Davis scorers still fell 31 points short of American Fork while averaging 13 seconds slower than their American Fork counterparts.
Fort Collins was a distant third with 177, while Mountain Vista finished in fourth with 234 points.
NXN individual qualifiers included Martinez, Gus Waneka, Thomas Jackson, Jordan Cross, and Montoya.
The blow that left the Fort Collins boys reeling, however, did nothing to deter the girls from completing their mission.
The Fort Collins girls had repeatedly struggled during their season. With injuries and illness refusing to give them a reprieve, Fort Collins finished a distant second at the Colorado state meet and gave little indication they were prepared to defend their NXN regional title. But, a lot of good things can happen in three weeks.
Using more or less the same strategy as their boys' team, the Fort Collins girls went strong to the front early in the race. Erin Hooker established her place with the lead pack, while Devynn Miller and Kira Miklos stalked not far behind, picking off runners from other teams as the went. As other contending teams slowly dropped from the pace, the Fort Collins girls maintained their position of strength throughout the race and coasted to a 34-point margin of victory over Xavier of Arizona. For Fort Collins, the victory marks their fifth consecutive team triumph at the NXR-SW meet.
Xavier's performance was marred by Sarah Fakler's struggles late in the race; she would eventually stumble just before the finish and end up in ninth after leading most of the early part of the race. Teammate Laura Orlie missed the race entirely due to an injury sustained at the state meet two weeks prior.
But, Xavier still had enough in the tank to hold off bids for second place from Colorado's Monarch and The Classical Academy. Monarch would edge The Classical Academy by seven points for third.
As it turns out, those seven points loom a lot larger than a single digit would normally indicate. With the Southwest region well positioned for an at-large bid, but probably not two, Monarch went back to the hotel on Saturday evening with a lot more reason for hope than The Classical Academy. Both teams own a victory over #1 Fort Collins from Colorado's state-sanctioned season. While those victories are important in determining at-large bids, they are a long way from the only factor that falls under consideration in making the decision.
Edit, 11/20, 5:11 PM: The TCA victory over Fort Collins on October 1 will not count toward at-large consideration as the composition of the Fort Collins teams on Oct 1 and Nov 19 was too different. I do not believe that a merged state meet score will count toward at-large consideration, either, though I am less sure about that.
Only time well tell if the enormous gap between second-place Davis and third-place Fort Collins spells the demise of Fort Collins' at-large hopes. As highly ranked and well respected as the Davis program is, a 101-point spread is bound to see some close scrutiny by the selection committee.
At-large selections will be announced next weekend, following the completion of the California state meet and the Southeast, Northeast, and New York regionals.
Individually, the girls race belonged to Erin Hooker, who ran 17:36 to finish six seconds ahead of Summer Harper.