A year ago Colorado had its Best Day Ever At NXN. But this year definitely upped the ante, or challenges 2017 at least.
Among the teams…
Three top-10 finishes.
Among the individuals…
FOUR Top-10 finishes in the boy’s race.
It was a banner day for Colorado.
The Boys From The Ridge Deliver
Dakota Ridge entered the meet ranked No. 4 in the country (and picked No.3) following their win at NXR, but they clearly weren’t satisfied.
After leading through the mile, and in a tight team race by the two mile, The Boys From The Ridge finished third by one point.
Dakota Ridge (Littleton) finished with 115 points, just behind Temecula’s 114 points.
Side Note: Dakota Ridge was a solid 81 points ahead of fourth place, as the top three squads were in a league of their own.
Austin Vancil and Connor Ohlson were simply impressive in their final race of the season. Vancil capped his high school career with perhaps the best race of his life, finishing 6th in 15:08, while Ohlson, the No. 1 No. 2 runner in the country, was just four seconds back in 15:10 for 10th.
And they were the third and fourth runners from the Centennial State to cross the finish line.
Rounding out Dakota Ridge’s scoring was Jacob White, who finished 56th, Benjamin Piegat, who finished 72nd, and Ben Morrin, who finished 93rd
Capping off Colorado’s teams was Mountain Vista, who finished 12th.
While the team race was exciting and decided in the final strides, so was the individual race.
A Race For The Ages
Valor Christian’s Cole Sprout and Mountain Vista’s Easton Allred were part of arguably the deepest boy’s field in NXN history.
And the race lived up to the hype.
In a stacked race that saw nearly a dozen still in the running for a national title with a mile to go, Allred was the first to show his cards in a surge that nearly blew the field wild open.
With 600 meters to go the race looked down to Sprout, Allred, and pre-race favorite Liam Anderson. Sprout countered Allred’s move while Anderson crept over his shoulder.
With the final double-hill in sight, Anderson pressed hard and for the first time it appeared Sprout had a challenger into the final straightaway.
The second hill of the double was the decider in this race, with Anderson inching a few feet ahead of Sprout. It was evident that Sprout would be denied a perfect season.
Anderson added to his precious lead in the final strides and Sprour was caught in the final strides by a late-charging Cole Hocker. The Valor Christian junior finished third in 15:02. Just three seconds back Allred crossed in 5th in 15:05.
In another exciting perspective, Colorado returns the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 runners next year, with Sprout, Allred, and Ohlson.
Ares Reading was just outside the Top 10, finished 17th in 15:19, while Dylan Schubert finished 35th in 15:35.
Niwot: The 2018 Cinderella Squad
Niwot nabbed the fourth and final At-Larger berth to Nike Cross Nationals, and they made the most of their second-chance by going on to finish 5th at NXN with 219 points.
Yeah, you read that right.