Niwot High cross country victorious again

Go ahead and take some time off. You’ve earned it. But don’t expect the rest of your team to stop running while you do -- they won’t.

With several of their top runners, including Addison Ritzenhein and Rocco Culpepper, taking well-deserved breaks after impressive individual and team efforts the previous week at the Desert Twilight Festival in Arizona, the Niwot boys and girls cross country teams traveled to the Western Slope on Thursday, Oct. 5, and continued their dominance with team victories at the Warrior Lincoln Park Classic in Grand Junction.

“We had some kids that we felt haven't been able to put it together in a race or they're in a position that they're always fighting with the varsity for a shot,” Niwot Coach Kelly Christensen explained. “This (the Grand Junction event) gave some of our younger kids an opportunity to go run. So, it was more of just a way to go and celebrate something different with these kids that work hard year-round.”

BOYS XC

The Cougars’ team depth was clearly on display in Grand Junction led by junior Keegan Geldean, sophomores Hunter Robbie and Ryder Keeton and junior Evan Kear capturing sixth through ninth places, respectively. Gavin Engtrakul, a junior, wrapped up the team scoring with a 13th place finish for the Cougars, whose 43 points edged out Eagle Valley High School’s 46 points for the team title.

Juniors Kye Toothaker (15th) and Christopher Wood (20th) also completed the Lincoln Park Golf Course route with Top 20 finishes.

The varsity event was highlighted by the record-setting performance of Porter Middaugh of Battle Mountain High. The senior finished the Lincoln Park course in 14:38.70, bettering the record he and teammate Will Brunner shared after crossing the finish line in a dead heat at last year’s race.

GIRLS XC

An impressive mix of veterans and newcomers kept the girls’ nationally ranked team undefeated on the season. Senior Sarah Perkins grabbed the individual gold medal with classmate Mia Prok finishing in second place. Kendall Madine, another senior, finished the course in fourth place. Perkins’ winning time of 17:35.7 was among the top 10 times in the event’s history.

The race was marred by a bad turn for senior Prok, who has a pot of individual silver medals this season but was looking for gold in Grand Junction. After racing out to the lead and appearing to pull away from the field through the 2000-meter mark, Prok made a wrong turn on the unfamiliar course and was forced to backtrack her way onto the course. To make matters worse, she stepped in a hole, tweaked her knee and wasn’t able to track down Perkins who had taken the lead at that point. Prok settled for another silver medal finish.

“We were hoping that she (Prok) was going to go and run out in the front and win in Grand Junction,” Christensen said. “That’s not to take anything away from Sarah because we knew she was going to have a strong race coming off a bad race (in Arizona). Sarah saw the mistake (wrong turn) and corrected it and ran an amazing race.”

The coach indicated that the knee injury shouldn’t keep Prok off the course when the Cougars return to action on Thursday, Oct. 19, at the Region 3 Championship in Arvada.

“She took a day off and then we tested it yesterday (Saturday). She feels the pain a little bit, but once she runs up and gets blood flowing through it, she says she feels great. So, it’s just an inflammation issue at this point. We’ll just moderate her training based on how she’s feeling.”

Freshmen Elise Hagen (5th place), Scarlett Parks (6th) and Elsza Bergen (8th) ran the Cougars into six of the top eight places in the event. Senior Viola Alessandrini (15th) and junior Alena Kasanicky (17th) were also Top 20 finishers.