By Bobby Reyes | Colorado MileSplit
There were plenty of reasons to head south to Phoenix, Ariz. for NXR Southwest.
One: To run a personal best at lower elevations.
Two: To book your ticket for Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Ore.
Three: Or maybe both.
As with most years, Colorado will be sending its best to Oregon in two weeks. The two best girl’s teams in the country went head-to-head for the first time this season – Air Academy and Niwot toed the line at NXR-Southwest and put on a clinic. Actually, Colorado’s girls in general put on a clinic.
But we’ll come back to that…
On the team front Niwot flipped the script from the Colorado State Meet PowerMerge.
Niwot took the overall team title, tallying 58-points to Air Academy’s 72. With the 1-2 finish, Niwot and Air Academy earned auto-qualifying spots to NXN.
And they might not be alone.
Finishing third with 107 points was Mountain Vista, which throws them into an At-Large pool. They’ll know their fate within the coming week.
Chaparral, Fossil Ridge, and Cherry Creek went 6-7-8 to give the Centennial State six teams inside the top-eight.
And if the team race told us anything, it’s that Colorado is just That Good.
Individually, Colorado put seven runners inside the top-10, led by Liberty Common’s Isabel Allori, who finished second in 17:01. Allori’s finish led a wave of Colorado runners across the finish line, as Niwot’s Addison Ritzenhein finished third in 17:03, Air Academy’s Bethany Michalak was fourth in 17:05, and Summit’s Ella Hagen, was fifth in 17:16.
While Ritzenhein and Michalak were part of auto-qualifying squads, Allori and Hagen’s finishes earned individual auto-qualifying spots.
Click here to read the full story and find out how the boys performed.