Month: October 2013

COLORADO SPRINGS — It was one year ago that Denver East was celebrating its first state cross country champion after Ashi Geberkidane brought home the title in the Class 5A state meet.

The moment was bittersweet for younger brother Cerake Geberkidane, who had hoped to finish right behind Ashi but took third overall. On Saturday at Norris Penrose Event Center, Cerake did that goal one better.

The Angels senior set a course record with a time of 15 minutes, 48.2 seconds in dominating the 5A state boys meet. Geberkidane crossed the finish line nearly 41 seconds before second-place Zachary Alhamra of Pine Creek to earn a title of his own.

“I came back to redeem myself. I really wanted to get first and second (in 2012) but I didn’t,” Cerake said. “I trained really hard and really wanted to win it to continue it on in the family.”

Ashi Geberkidane is currently a freshman at Harvard and Cerake joked his brother was probably doing homework, but he was looking forward to making a phone call to him later.

The Mountain Vista boys, led by senior Connor Weaver’s third-place finish and four runners in the top 26, defended its 5A boys team title with 110 points. Fort Collins was second with 179.

“It’s different because all year we were talking about how there was a big target on their back and they knew it coming in,” Mountain Vista coach Jonathan Dalby said. “In years past we’ve been chasing that target on other teams, especially teams like Fort Collins.

“I told them they needed to race not like they were going out there just to defend a state title but like they were getting out to try and win it.”

Thornton’s Joshua Johnson and Sean Paiz rounded out the top five individuals.

In the 5A girls meet, Fort Collins freshman Lauren Gregory earned the top spot by 22 seconds, finishing in 18:36.9. Boulder’s Erin McLaughlin was second, followed by Grandview’s Erin Norton, Fairview’s Maya Browning and Monarch’s Ashley Litoff.

The state’s biggest stage didn’t faze Gregory, who said she wasn’t any more nervous than usual.

“It was just race nerves,” Gregory said. “I didn’t have any expectations or real pressure to do anything. I just felt like ‘let’s go do what I want to do.’”

Monarch clinched its third consecutive state championship as three Coyotes finished in the top eight. Litoff, Claire Green (seventh) and Kaitlyn Benner (8th) stuck together throughout the course and helped Monarch hold off Fort Collins for the third year in a row.

“That was the plan, to try to stick as close as we could to each other,” Litoff said. “At the end, when we got it, it was just really satisfying.”

Monarch had six runners place in the top 27 and finished with 49 points.

COLORADO SPRINGS — Elise Cranny lived up to the hype.

The Niwot High School senior is considered one of the nation’s top runners and showed why Saturday at the Norris Penrose Events Center.

The senior set a course record with an 18.07.8 time to win her second consecutive Class 4A girls state cross country championship.

“This was my last state cross country meet and I wanted to enjoy it,” Cranny said. “The hill was much harder than I remembered. I wanted to run faster and break 18 (minutes), but this is fine.”

Cranny did shatter the previous 3.2-mile course record at the Norris Penrose Events Center. The old mark was 18:16.5 set by Pine Creek’s Heather Bates last year.

“This was exciting,” Cranny said. “I had to just keep going hard.”

For the second year in a row, Katie Ransberger took second to Cranny. The sophomore came in at 18:47.4 on Saturday.

“It felt great,” Ransberger said. “Elise is one of the top runners in the nation and she pulled off an amazing race. I can’t be sad about coming in second to her. She is a phenomenal runner.”

This was Cranny’s fifth state title as she has won the 800, mile and two-mile crowns in track.

In the girls 4A team race, Thompson Valley won the team title with 135 points.

“This feels really awesome,” said Thompson Valley coach Matt Norton said. “We felt like coming into the season we had a team that could pull something like this off. We kind of had a roller-coaster season, but they ran absolutely their best race as a team.”

This was Thompson Valley’s fourth girls cross country state title.

On the boys 4A side, once Liam Meirow took the lead late in in the race he found the winning gear.

The Summit High School senior sped to the finish line in a dead sprint to capture the coveted title in 16:27.1 seconds.

“That was the roughest race I ever had, but I didn’t give up,” Meirow said moments after claiming his first state cross country state championship. “I was able to keep progressing my speed throughout the race.”

The 6-foot-1, 140-pound Meirow said he took the lead in the 3.2-mile race from Pueblo Centennial’s Michael Duran with a half-mile remaining.

“This race went out perfectly,” said Meirow, whose previous best state cross country finish was 10th last year. “You always underestimate the pain, but you have to push it no matter what. If I’m confident in anything it is my finishing kick. I knew I could hold everybody off and win.”

Broomfield’s Ethan Gonzalez was right on Meirow’s heels finishing in 16:29.6. Centennial’s Duran was third at 16:43.4.

“I was toe-to-toe with Liam when we turned into the stadium, but I had nothing left,”  said Gonzales, a senior. “I gave it everything I had. I have no regrets.”

Broomfield did get a measure of revenge winning the team title with 89 points.  The Classical Academy was second with 123 points.

“We did something special as a team,” Gonzales said.

Ricardo Ocampo, Gonzales’ teammate,  came in seventh.

“We all did our best and it us great to win it,” Ocampo , a senior, said.

This was Broomfield’s first state boys cross country title in school history.

“This was a very big deal for us,” Broomfield coach Greg Weich said. “Ethan and Ricardo did a great job for us was our depth.”

COLORADO SPRINGS — No one should ever question Jacob Benson.

Benson, who proudly wears the Platte Canyon uniform, attends South Park High School and does a majority of his training on his own in the hills of Fairplay. Two times a week this season, he made the 40 minute drive down Highway 85 to run with his teammates in Bailey and on Saturday he was rewarded for his effort.

Benson became the first individual state champion for Platte Canyon, but you can rest assured he still bleeds Burros green and gold.

“It is an amazing feeling and there are really no words to describe it,” said Benson, who crossed the finish line four second ahead of Salida’s Taylor Stack in 16 minutes, 46 seconds. “I just go at a pace that feels comfortable and that I know I can hold for a long time and then towards the end give it everything I’ve got.”

Platte Canyon coach Troy Phillips bolted out of the stand and down to the stadium floor to congratulate his state champ.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have him and we are just overjoyed for him,” Phillips said. “He has run with a lot of adversity because he has to train by himself a lot of the times. This has been building since his sophomore year when he finished 12th and then second last year. We were gunning for a state championship all season long.”

Staying with the day of firsts theme on the boys side: It was the first team championship for Frontier Academy. The Wolverines placed all four scoring runners in the top 17 to finish with a score of 44 points and edge second place Lamar (55).

Leading the way for the Frontier foursome was senior Chris Baker, who finished fifth in 17:16.9. Drake Bytnar, Sean Tyrrell and Brody Lewis all ran well for coach Brett Shanklin, whose team went 1-2-3-4 last week at regionals and carried a load of momentum into state.

“We’ve done a lot of thing over the last four years to get to this point,” Shanklin said. “Finally they just put it together. They jut continued to get stronger and we always train with that goal in mind and continue to work for that. It has paid dividends and as the season went on they got stronger and stronger.”

On the girls side, Bayfield’s Eva Lou Edwards repeated as champion and in the process took 24 seconds off of her time from a year ago. She blistered the Norris Penrose Events Center course in 18 minutes, 41.6 second and was 1:26 faster than runner-up Makayla Santos of Frontier Academy.

Not bad for a girl who was admittedly burned out.

“It doesn’t feel different, just because I didn’t have a lot of excitement coming into today. I was most excited to be here with my team, just because last year I had to do it by myself,” said Edwards, who has also qualified for the Class 5A state tennis tournament for Durango, runs track and plays basketball.

“I’m a little burned out right now, because I usually play tennis in the spring, but I ran track instead. So I’ve been running and running and running, so I’m going to play basketball and then see if my love for running comes back. Hopefully it does.”

Salida’s girls put on an impressive show in the team race with tiny team total of 35 points, easily distancing itself from second place Estes Park (94).

The Spartans had all six of their runners in the top 32, and all four scoring runners were in the top 18. leading the way for Salida was the sophomore duo of Sydney Fesermeyer (3rd in 20:16.8) and Phoebe Powell (6th in 20:34.1).