Eleanor Fulton starts to pull away from Julia Foster of Albuquerque Academy at 2.5 miles. Photo by Alan Versaw.
As it has been the last two years, the Colorado contingent dominated the results at the NXN-SW regional meet.
In fact, it was a case of "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Just like last year, the Fort Collins girls upended the TCA girls for first, though both teams advance, again, to Portland for Nike Cross Nationals on December 5.
The final tally put Fort Collins ahead of TCA (Titans XC), 72 - 83. Fort Collins's win came on the strength of their fourth and fifth runners. The #4 and #5 for Fort Collins scored 19-28 versus 32-33 for The Classical Academy. That was more than enough to erase a seven-point advantage TCA held through the first three runners.
Colorado domination did not end with the team scores. In the individual standings, Eleanor Fulton of Highlands Ranch finished first in 17:45, followed by Kaitlin Hanenburg of TCA in 17:51. Numerous other Colorado runners occupied top positions. Indeed, seven of the top 10, and 12 of the top 17, finishers were from Colorado.
Fulton led wire-to-wire, but never quite put the race completely out of reach. Trailed closely by Jessica Tonn (Arizona) and Julia Foster (New Mexico) in early stages of the race, Fulton's company late in the race--Kaitlin Hanenburg--came from her home state.
Several Colorado girls teams were hit by injuries or illness leading up to the NXN-SW race. Among these were Highlands Ranch and Greeley Central, both of whom figured to post solid finishes at the race before things took an unfortunate turn.
No Colorado boys, either teams or individuals, advanced to Portland. Andrew Goodman of Palmer was the highest Colorado finisher at 17th in 16:04. The Dakota Ridge boys, continuing a late-season rise for that program, finished ninth in the boys championship race.
In the open races, Colorado's top team finishers were Mountain Vista (girls champions) and Loveland (boys second place).