4 area boys form pack into 5A podium finish
Fairview’s Murphy, Boulder’s Haug finish stronger than ever
COLORADO SPRINGS — The oddities in athletics amid the coronavirus pandemic ranges from the miniscule to the broader details.
In the state’s high school cross country scene, the norms relied on by runners in years’ past were gone. Anything from the size of an event to the way runners were spaced at the start line were flipped on its head.
Saturday, with the state meet dressed up with COVID-19 regulations, changes, of course, were drastic and included everything from no spectators inside Norris Penrose Event Center to each classification race getting broken into smaller waves.
Through the strange and different, though, four Class 5A boys runners from the BocoPreps region still found some
semblance of familiarity.
Finishing fourth through seventh in the race, Henry Murphy of Fairview, Lukas Haug of Boulder, James Thomas of Broomfield and Ryan Montera of Legacy crossed the finish within less than 17 seconds of each other.
Starting in the first of four waves, the area seniors established a strong pace alongside one another as they worked through the Bear Creek Park course. They swapped positions but never strayed far.
“It was sweet,” Murphy said. “We had a nice pack through the first two miles.”
Rounding into the empty stadium, Murphy (15:41.3) came through first among the four — 31 seconds behind Cherry Creek’s Parker Wolfe, who broke the course record in a 15:10.4 victory.
Haug finished in 15:44, Thomas was at 15.47.4 and Montera 15:57.8 — the latter, capping the sub-16-minute runners in the 5A race.
“It’s taken me four years to figure this race out,” said Murphy, who’d been outside the top 30 in his first three years. “It’s great to finally run a race I’m proud of here.”
Thumbs up across the board. Murphy was up from his 36th place from last year as he cut off more than a minute from that time. Haug was 18 places better than his 23rd-place finish. Thomas, who led the foursome in 18th last season, moved up 12 spots. Montera surged from 29th.
It was the first top-10 podium result for any of them. In fact, it was the first area runner to make the 5A boys podium since 2017 when Monarch’s Charlie Perry won the individual title while Broomfield’s Michael Mooney was seventh and the Coyotes’ Will Dixon took ninth.
“I finally had the strength to keep up with the front guys and play some strategy games with them,” Haug said. “Especially going into the last straight, I just took off and it worked out.”
The four posed side-by-side for pictures at the podium ceremony in front of Norris Penrose.
In the boys’ race, Fairview took third on the strength of Murphy’s fourth-place result. Behind Thomas, Broomfield took eighth.
Elsewhere for the Knights, Eric Sankey was 14th (16:20.2), Victor Lita 44th (17:18.9), Christian Castellino 51st (17:26.8), Jack Brown 61st (17:37) and Holden Krizek was 82nd (18:04.6). For the Eagles, Dylan Knoles was 45th (17:19.5), Logan Stodden 46th (17:19.8), Byron Nelson 72nd (17:56.4), Cole Liebentritt 81st (18:03.4) and Ian Weich was 87th (18:09.9).
In the 5A girls’ race, Broomfield’s Maelynn Higgins finished 20th (19:01.9) to lead all area runners, pushing the Eagles to a seventh-place finish. Fairview’s Imani FernandezGorbea was next in 26th (19:16.9) as the Knights took eighth as a team. Legacy’s Mia Mraz was 33rd (19:33.7).
Elsewhere for the Eagles, Sierra Parks was 32nd (19:30.9), Paisley Williamson 36th (19:36), Norah Powers 61st (20:29.2), Caroline Daugherty 87th (21:16.7) and Gabriela Olson was 92nd (21:25.2).
For the Knights, Maddie Shove was 44th (19:56.2), Josephine Atkinson 54th (20:17.9), Gabriella Castellino 57th (20:21), Devin Murphy 58th (20:22.8) and Allison Kirby was 71st (20:43.4).