Beasley finishes her career in style
Holy Family girls place second in Class 3A standings
COLORADO SPRINGS — With the goal of topping her sixth-place finish from last season, Peak to Peak senior Allison Beasley devised a plan to make her senior state championship meet best.
The plan was simple: start slow and go hard the last kilometer.
During the Class 3A girls race at the Colorado cross country state championships on Saturday, Beasley found herself further back than she had planned to be in that critical moment when she had a thousand meters to go. But she made up for lost time with an even bigger finish than she had planned, placing third with a time of 19 minutes, 20.3 seconds.
“Honestly, it was really hard and kind of slow,” Beasley said. “But I was just trying to stick to the race plan I had in my head because I thought if I could stick to it, I could pull something off. My position when we entered about 1K to go was kind of rough but I told myself that’s when I was going to pick it up and I did.
“I’m just thankful I did better than last year.”
In the 3A girls team competition, the Holy Family Tigers finished runners-up without a single individual placer in the top 20. The Tigers’ highest placer, senior Summer Norwell, came in 23rd with a time of 20:46.4.
“With the girls, I did not think they could get second place,” Holy Family head coach Charles Shapiro said.
“I thought if they had the perfect day they could be third and before the race I had them ranked sixth, but all those teams were close. They ran unbelievable and the reason why we did so well is because of our depth.
“Maddie (Tapp), Alyssa (Wells) and Evie (Boyd) all ran together. Alyssa Jany had a tough start and she came on at the end.
“It was the depth. Summer ran out of her mind, 20:46 on this course is insane. I couldn’t be more proud of both the boys and the girls.”
The Holy Family boys also had a good day as a squad. With Jack Culp (16:59.6) leading the way in 10th place, the Tigers placed third overall.
“It feels good,” Culp said. “I can’t put it any other way than that. It’s good to finally get up to the top and show that all of that hard work and effort has finally paid off.”
Jacob Crookston was Jefferson Academy’s highest male finisher, placing 18th with a time of 17:17.7 to lead the Jaguars to a sixth-place team finish. The Jefferson Academy girls finished ninth in the team scoring with freshman Maya Ross placing 16th in 20:21.6.
The Prospect Ridge boys placed 11th and the Miners’ girls team finished in 14th place.