(El Paso Eastwood boys won the Boys Sweepstakes Title with 112 points.-photo by Jesus Ruiz)
E.P. Eastwood Edge Out Niwot For Second Title In Three Years
With Niwot's Culpepper and Reading as the 1-2 punch of the night, the Pumas possessed a seemingly insurmountable advantage already fifteen minutes into the race. Jack Volf (Sr.) finished 33rd and Benjamin Bi (Sr.) finished 47th to score another 64 points for the Pumas, still with a five-point advantage over El Paso.
Eastwood had a 1-2 punch in Sergio Cuartas (So.) and Elias Perez (Jr.), as well as a 3-4 punch in Juan Olmos (Jr.) and Kayn Quinones (Sr.) who all finished less than nine seconds behind Cuartas and Perez. The deciding factor came down to both respective teams' fifth guys. Eastwood's no. 5 Nathan Hernandez (So.) finished two-tenths of a second ahead of Benjamin Bi, but the Pumas still had to bring home their no. 5. Caleb Bishop (Jr.) brought it home in 16:02.4 to score 43 points.
Niwot, had the fastest average time of the night because of Culpepper and Reading and Eastwood had possibly the tightest spread of the night with their 1-5 guys just 22 seconds apart. However, cross country is scored with points and in this contest the Eastwood Troopers secured their 2nd Sweepstakes Boys Title at Desert Twilight by just one point over the Niwot Cougars.
When asked about their motivations, Olmos said that it came down to running for one another. "When we see someone with the same uniform in front of us we go with them."