Out With the Old Season, In With the New

Sydney Scott, right, raced to 26th and a time of 18:17.2 at Saturday's Foot Locker Nationals. Photo by Don Rich, Penn Track XC.

On Saturday, high school cross country 2011 breathed its last--once on the east coast and then the grand finale on the west. Cross country 2011 is now history.

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, two Colorado girls made a memorable weekend of it by bringing home USATF Junior Olympic cross country titles. First it was Lauren Gregory of Fort Collins/Windsor winning the Midget Girls 3K by ten seconds in a nifty time of 10:10.35. Not long after, Heather Bates (photo, left, contributed by Dan Bates) made up for some time lost to injury in her fall season by winning the young women's 5K title in 18:14.36, eight second's ahead of New Mexico's Caroline Kaufman.

Colorado was represented by several other competitors at the national Junior Olympic meet. While there no other national titles for Colorado, there were several noteworthy performances.