Having scored just 26 points at last year’s Class 4A State Championships, the Cheyenne Mountain Red-Tailed Hawks boys cross country team put together one of the most dominant meets any classification has seen in recent years.
Kaden Levings now is tasked with being the alpha male and keeping CMHS in the hunt for a repeat.
Most of the Red-Tailed Hawks’ championship-winning team graduated, including Erik La Roux, Knox Exton and Tyler Nord – each who finished within the top seven overall at the Norris Penrose Event Center in October 2021. Beyond that, three more boys who finished within the top 21 places also were seniors. On paper, that looks daunting for the program to be able to keep up with the other elite schools who may not have lost as much.
Levings believes otherwise, however.
“I would just say, even though we lost a good amount of our team we’re still a pretty deep team so we’ve got a lot of strength,” Levings said. “That’s kind of the philosophy that our team has is the strength in our numbers. We’re looking for a challenge this year.
“A lot of people don’t think that we can take that state title, but that’s the number one thing on our mind and we’re going to work day in and day out just to make sure we have a shot at that.”
The senior has faith in his teammates, just as many have faith in him to be one of the top contenders for the individual state title when all is said and done. He rose from 17th place as a sophomore (his time was 16 minutes, 15.30 seconds) in 2020, all the way up to third place as a junior (with an impressive 15:34.50) last year.
Of course, in the any-given-day world of cross country racing, the state championship will have to be earned and Levings knows there’s plenty of competition in 4A, despite the fact that only two other then-juniors placed within the top 15 last year and Niwot’s Zane Bergen is now at Stanford after having won the past two 4A individual titles.
Niwot’s Carlos Kipkorir Cheruiyot, Erie’s Evan Kraus, Centaurus’ Max Heins and Golden’s Henry Stubenrauch are among the other well-known foes Levings will look to fend off, with dark horses also seemingly emerging year after year.
Levings believes strongly in his training regimen and knows the season for CMHS will offer plenty of opportunity to grow. On Sept. 2, Cheyenne Mountain will gather at the NPEC along with many of the state’s top teams for the Stampede Pre-State run — a chance to trek the state course without all the pressure of the championships.
The experience gained will only add to the hunger for the team, Levings said.
“The newer people that are coming on are inspired and want to make something out of this,” Levings said.