Upcoming Events

Walden, Hauser and Young Run at the Ft Carson Fun Run

India Walden finished 4th overall and first in her age group at a recent race on the Fort Carson Base.  Shannon Young and Hailey Hauser were not far behind.  Time are currently unavailable.

Check here for photos of all three runners

Drew Stimson and Quin Ralston finish high at the Pike Pike Fall Series

Check here for full results

Dusty Solis Selected by MileSplit for

All-State - 5A First Team

see full story

Super Season Ends with Injury and Disappointment

The Cougars entered this past weekend riding a four meet winning streak which spanned over six weeks.  The string of victories came to an abrupt halt on Saturday as the Cougars stepped to the line knowing that their MVP might not be at his best.  Dusty Solis had injured his foot in the late stages of the Regional Championships and could only hope that he'd be even 90% by Saturday.  As much as this meet meant to Dusty, and despite nursing the injury over the last several days; Dusty was unable to respond when the gun sounded in Fort Collins.  Coronado finished in twelfth place, but even with a healthy lead runner would have finished no higher than fifth.  As expected, Regis dominated the field, followed by Cherokee Trail; Coronado had been ranked third going into the final week and had hopes of finishing the season at least at that level.

Jesse Mathews and Dylan Witte led the Cougars finishing 22nd and 45th, respectively.  Freshman Dan Egger ran third for the team, finishing in 81st place and then was followed by Ryan Mott (85th), Dusty (93rd), Ryan Logan (98th) and Schuyler Vandersluis (165th).  The crowded and chaotic race conditions proved to be problematic and shock to the Cougars runners, especially those who hadn't run at State previously.

Thoughts now turn towards Track and Field, for some, and to next year's cross country season for others.  The Cougars should expect to build on their tradition of excellence in 2010 as they'll return with a plethora of talent.

Season Concludes (for most) with Banquet

The banquet was originally scheduled as the crescendo to a great season.  But this year, the boys still have some unfinished business.  Still, it was a great season and we had a lot of fun.  This was probably the best "overall" team that I've witnessed in my six years at Coronado.  Anyway, the festivities ended last night with Dusty running away with the MVP award for the boys and (thankfully returning) Bailey Gearhart taking home the girls MVP award.  A special thanks must be extended to the seniors for all of the work that they put into creating the wonderful quilt.  Seniors, you will be missed...I promise you.

Some banquet pictures have been posted

Coronado Repeat as Regional Champions

Boys Team Finishes First – Girls Eighth

The Cougars ended the regular season on a high note with forty-three athletes running personal records (PRs), another four finishing with their best time of the season, and several other runners within seconds of hitting their best times.  The team used this late season surge to capture the boys’ championship, dominate the boys open race and display some awesome depth in the girls open race.  The boys’ "team title" is their second consecutive and results in their ninth straight trip to the State Championships. 

For the most part, the only thing to hold the Cougars back was dreaded flu bug.  Unfortunately, Coronado student athletes have had to suffer their share of illness over the last few weeks, with the girl’s team being hardest hit.  The hopes of the girl’s varsity team were dampened by the flu bug and then they experienced an additional setback when the, previously written –off, Doherty Spartans rose from the ashes to capture the fifth and final spot to qualify for next week’s meet.  The girl’s team will have to look forward to next year where things are already looking favorable.  The Cougars return their top four finishers from Thursdays’ competition and will be joined by some very talented freshmen as they look forward to 2010.  Couple these talented returners with the fact that the team appears to be headed to 4A competition and the coaches should already be thinking about booking rooms for next year’s trip.

But this season is not quite over, at least not yet…we still have seven very talented young men poised to make the trip to Fort Collins.  Heads are going to turn this weekend as runners and coaches around the State see what the Cougars were able to accomplish on Thursday.  Dusty Solis won the 5A race, despite nearly losing a shoe and Jesse Mathews ran fourth to give the team a huge edge on the competition (36 to 48 over second place Palmer).  But it was the next five harriers who deserve the greatest praise.  These five harriers dropped their respective times by an average of twenty-two seconds and, as a result, the Cougars average time (for their top five competitors) dropped from a previous best of 16:51 to a new standard of 16:45.  To add to that, the Cougars’ sixth man finished yesterday’s race in 17:03.  That’s twenty-eight seconds better than their fourth man’s time on the same course a year ago and nearly a minute ahead of where their fifth man was in 2008.  The boys will race again next Saturday at Fossil Ridge High School at 1:00 p.m..

The open races served as an apostrophe to what had happened in the two earlier races.  On the boys’ side, Quin Ralston battled Palmer’s Jamie Perez for the individual title and in the process tied his personal record with a time of 17:52.  Drew Stimson wasn’t far behind running a PR of 18:15.  Miles Kelly ran third for the Cougars (PR of 18:34) and led a sea of red and gold where an additional fourteen runners crossed the line under the twenty minute mark.  Freshman Brandon Lehman continued his late season heroics as he lowered his PR by another 75 seconds on the way to an impressive 19:50.  Nick Burghardt and Tate Lagasca entered this week’s competition with their hearts set on a pair of sub twenty performances and nether were disappointed as they crossed the line in 19:17 and 19:46 respectively.  Other performances of note were Matt Lindstrom at 20:18, Tim O’Connell at 20:33, Craig Lane finishing in 21:12 and Robbie Austin lowering his time by nearly two minutes over the last two weeks to 22:18.

As exciting as the Boy’s Open race was, the girls may have done one better with 17 of the 24 runners setting PRs and several of them experiencing “break-through’ races.   Freshman India Walden led the Cougars in 21:43 making the statement that she intends to run varsity every race next year.  Hailey Houser (22:21), Emily Asay (22:29), Jill Brinkman (22:35), Shannon Young (22:40), and Silvia Hayes (22:44) all snuck under the twenty-three minute barrier with Emily and Silvia all running PRs.  Another surge of Cougars led by Rileigh Darby-McClure (23:35) looked to get under the 24 minute mark, some of them looking to letter as well.  Following Rileigh were Emily Martin (23:41), Erika Barton (23:56), Amanda Malone (23:59) and Michelle Gregory (23:59.9), with the last three all setting PRs.  There were several more PRs to come.  It was truly awesome.  See the results page for a complete list.

Metro League Serves as a Great Indicator as to How Much Our Runners Are Improving

Twenty-four runners set their personal best times at the 2009 Metro League Championships.

Dusty Solis Takes His Third Consecutive Individual Title As He Leads the Cougars to Their Very First Team Title

Dusty Solis felt pressure from Shawn Dabbs (Woodland Park), and Andrew Goodman (Palmer) through the first lap of the two lap course at Fountain-Fort Carson High School, but then gradually, but consistently, pulled away to win his third straight Metro League title.  The Cougars also secured the team title (barely) by edging Palmer by a score of 40 to 41.  Credit a great race from freshman Dan Egger (15th) and a last second kick from Dylan Witte (6th) for making the difference in the team race.  Of course, having the overall meets' champion didn't hurt and the Cougars receive some much needed support from Jesse Mathews (5th) and Ryan Mott (13th).  Senior Ryan Logan, and freshman Schuyler Vandersluis ran sixth and seventh for Coronado in the squads third consecutive and third major team victory of the season.

Team scores for the Open race were not announced, but the Cougars undoubtedly wrapped up that victory as well.  Led by two, up and coming sophomores, Quin Ralston and Drew Stimson the Cougars had six finishers among the meets' top fifteen.  Justin Hays, Eric Albers, Hayden Johnson and Miles Kelly (all near or under 19 minutes) rounded out the Cougars' award recipients.  Other Coronado runners with races worthy of mention include Alex Salter (19:45), Andrew Trujillo (20:49), Alex Ballard (21:03), Matt Lindstrom (21:04), Stephen Kruse (21:13), Craig lane (21:56), Alex Goldberg (22:16), Brandan Trujillo (22:31), Chip Lane (23:05) and Robbie Austin (23:06).

Girls Team Finishes Fourth and Positions Themselves for Next Weeks' Battle

Kaitlin Burrell (20:46) dropped a little more than 20 seconds from her personal best and stepped up to the #2 spot on the team (behind Bailey Gearhart) to give the Cougars a much needed boost.  Alexis Work (21:08) and Kaeli Vandersluis (21:19) each took a couple seconds off respective previous bests as their contribution and finally the team received a much needed and clutch performance from Megan Trujillo to assure the fourth place team finish. Coronado finished a mere four points ahead of Doherty; if not for the additional contribution from their two "pushers", Lauren Young and India Walden, the race might have been considerably closer.  The number "four" has particular significance this week as the team prepares for the Regional Championships.  Only five team from the region will move on to the State Meet.  Most of the teams the Cougars will compete against next week were in this weeks' meet.  Add Mountain Vista, Durango and Douglas County to the mix and all of the sudden it looks like a serious battle for those top five spots.  But the Cougars are in a good spot as Lauren Young and Rosie Bradley appear to be recovering from their travels and ailments. With that, it appears that we can expect to see this squad move onto the State Meet as everyone appears to be peaking at the perfect time.

In the Open race, the Palmer girls flexed their muscles and demonstrated how deep their talent runs.  But the Cougars were not far behind and performed exceptionally well with six of the runners posting personal best times.  Silvia Hayes (23:42) continues to show improvement as she snipped a couple of seconds from her PR.  Erika Barton (24:07), Rachel Skivington (24:54) and Katherine Hutado(25:06) each had their respective "breakthrough races" of the season, each lowering their PR by at least 70 seconds.  Not to be out done, Leah Juron, took an amazing 102 seconds off of her personal record.  And finally, freshman, Julianna Lobato (27:57), bested her PR by one second.

Look for times to drop even further next week as the Cougars rest up for the Regional Championships.

Results are Posted ---Photos Posted

Another Rest Week Leads to Opportunities

Cougar Boys Win Open Race at Spartan Invite

The team’s top six runners (boys and girls) took their second and last “off week” of the season and allowed others to find the spot light and take home this weeks’ awards.  The Boys Open Team, led by Philip Faires (2^nd), took home the most hardware by putting thirteen runners in the top twenty-five and literally running away with the team title.  The other  four point scorers for the Cougars in this impressive win were Miles Kelly (4^th), Scott Von Thun (6^th), Alex Salter (9^th) and Travvis Scott (11^th).  The Boys Varsity squad, led by freshman Schuyler Vandersluis (15^th) finished 6^th in the thirteen team field. 

On the girls’ side, the Varsity was led by two freshmen, India Walden (11^th) and Silvia Hayes (27^th) and like the boys managed a sixth place finish.  And the girls open team did a great job to secure a fourth place finish.  That effort was led by Michelle Gregory (16^th), Jasmine Kemble (19^th) and Jenna Humble (20^th).

Full results can be found on MileSplit  @  http://co.milesplit.us/meets/53287

The Cougars have done an awesome job over the last three weeks.  We continue to see significant improvement and have been fortunate to take home several awards.  The coaching staff has been extremely pleased with what we’ve seen at each of the last four events.  But before we get too wrapped up in all of the trophies, medals and ribbons; let’s remember that Cross Country isn’t just about winning; it’s about commitment, dedication, sacrifice, developing a work ethic and most importantly…personal growth.  There are numerous success stories that spectators rarely see; stories about those athletes who may not possess awesome talents, but who find a way to succeed and breakthrough in ways that few recognize.  So, instead of spending more ink this week writing about how our top runners performed; I’m going to take advantage of the “off week” and share some of these stories.  Here are seven of the top success stories for the girls  and seven for the boys.  Certainly there are more than just seven great stories, but I had to stop somewhere.

Girls

• Over the course of her first season, sophomore Leah Juron has lowered her time by over five minutes and her times will continue to drop as we approach the seasons’ fastest meets.  Leah ahs been one of the few runners to post personal bests on some of the tougher meets of the season and she is as excited as anyone with the upcoming prospect for improvement.
• Freshman, Silvia Hayes is the consummate XC athlete; she works hard and loves pain.  Over the course of the season she’s worked her way several spots up the depth chart to a point where she is now knocking on the Varsity team door.
• Calli Johnson quietly gets the job done, blending in with the squad as she goes about her business; always at practice and always working hard.  Her hard work has paid off with amazing consistency and great performances throughout 2009.
• Sophomore Jenna Humble never ceases to amaze; Jenna started her XC career at the 2008 Arapahoe Invite, running 38:28 over a challenging 5K course.  This season Jenna is running in the mid twenties and is threatening to break the twenty-five minute barrier at next week’s Metro League Championships.
• Amanda Malone was a last minute entry onto Friday’s varsity squad.  The promotion must of unlocked her inhibitions as she ran nearly a minute faster (than her previous best); and all this on a course that’s nearly a minute slower.
• The roster is not yet fixed for the last two regular season meets.  But as we approach the Metro League meet, it’s a mild surprise that India Walden is in the thick of the battle for the final spot.  India started the season running in the mid 25s and has methodically worked her way under 22 minutes.
• Sara Petersiele started the season with a 31:18 at the Arapahoe Invite but kicked it into high gear at the Cougar classic, breaking the 26 minute barrier.  Surprisingly, Sara has done this while suffering with sore knees and shin splints.  The spirit of a lion lies somewhere deep within this mild-mannered freshman.

Boys

• Quin Ralston has always been a good runner.  But he suddenly, in the middle of the 2009 season, he became a very good runner on the verge of being great.  Mix a little hard work, a lot of heart and some magic dust and boom…success happens.
• Year over year comparisons sometimes expose surprising improvements.  As a sophomore, Andrew Darress started out running in the mid 25s and later managed to drop his times to the low 22s.  As a junior, Andrew Darress has become a force to be reckoned with his times are now in the mid 19s.  Expect to see Andrew dip into the 18s by the end of the year.
• A freshman season can be tough.  Many first year runners take a great deal of time adjusting to the rigors of distance running.  Brendon Lehman struggled through the mid season races and but then suddenly ran a 21:05 on the tough Spartan Invite course.  People are, all of the sudden, starting to take note of this kids abilities.  He is promising to play a part in Coronado’s cross country future.
• Tate Lagasca started his freshman year running in the mid 25s and spent the entire year getting down to the low 22s.  He wasted little time in 2009, running in the 22’s early in the season and don’t stop watching him now as he’s absolutely certain to smash the 20 minute barrier at his next competition.  His best time this year is the 20:08 he ran at the Cougar Classic.
• Sprinters aren’t supposed to be able to run a good 5K.  Really?  Well explain that to Travvis Scott, Eric Albers and Justin Ramsey.  Justin is a freshman who has already broken 20 minutes.  That’s an incredible accomplishment for a first year runner, much less a sprinter.  Unfortunately, Justin did this in the one year where four (other) freshmen teammates have overshadowed his success.  Look for Justin to be a team leader in future years.
• Scott Von Thun blended into the pack during his freshman and sophomore years.   As a junior, he’s starting to see his potential.  Scott has methodically moved up the depth chart.  He ran a 19:44 at the Cougar Classic and then turned in an impressive 20:02 on the tough Spartan course.  Persistency pays.
• How do you drop four minutes off of your 5K time in a span of six weeks?  Ask Andrew Trujillo who is quickly joining the other six very talented freshman.  On Thursday, Andrew ran a 21:36 on a tough, hilly Bear Creek course.  Assuming he can stay healthy, Andrew might just give a good run at the 20 minute barrier over the next two weeks.

The Cougar Go Stealth to the Dave Sanders Invite and Steal a Gem

The field of predominantly Denver and Boulder schools didn't see Coronado coming and they're still not quite sure what hit them.  Competitors and spectators watching the division I races and looking into the pack for Coronado, probably assumed that the Cougars were a "no-show".  The varsity teams travelled to Denver on Friday "retro".  Wearing uniforms with no team markings and which hadn't been seen since 2006, the Cougars ran totally incognito in each of their two races (boys and girls).  Even those who know the team the best, the parents and coaches, found it difficult to pick out their athletes; as the "retro" uniforms were totally obscured by the likes of Regis and Fairview who sported similar singlets.

The boys applied stealth tactics to work their work their way (unseen) up through the pack until they eventually gained control of the race.  Dusty Solis was hard to miss as he worked his way from seventh to fourth and eventually to second place.  But even then, probably only a small percentage of the spectators knew who was putting the pressure on Scott Fauble, one of the states top two (no, now make that three) harriers.  At two miles, the race had whittle down to a four runner affair; then there were two.  Fauble, feeling Dusty's presence put on a surge with 800 meters remaining.  His strategy was successful as he built a fifteen meter buffer over Dusty and the two top runners opened up a sizable gap on the field.  The fifteen meter advantage turned out to be just enough; thirteen wouldn't have cut it.  Fauble held on to this advantage until the final approach to the finish line where Dusty made his fast and decisive move.  But Dusty's sprint proved to be a case of "too little, too late" and Scott Fauble (barely) remained undefeated in Colorado racing as he won the individual title with a one second margin.  Fauble appeared shocked to see Dusty almost running him over as he turned around expecting to see a fifteen to twenty second margin of victory.  We're still not certain that he totally comprehends what nearly happened.  On the other hand, we totally understand exactly what this means.  The gauntlet has been thrown and Dusty can never expect to run through a top caliber race unknown or unseen.

While Dusty was fighting for individual honors, Jesse Mathews, Dylan Witte, Ryan Mott and Ryan Logan had their sights on the team title.  Jesse did his part securing another high finish for the team (11th) and giving the Cougars the races best "one - two" punch.  Then came the trio who wrapped up the victory...certainly the coaches and spectators must have taken some note of three runners with the same "undesignated" uniforms, running together among the fields top thirty competitors.  Their (Dylan, Ryan and Ryan) eventual 28 - 29 -31 finish secured an impressive victory for the Cougars in a major meet with a deep field.  Expect their efforts to result in a rise in this weeks' poll (Cougars were 7th last week).

The Dave Sanders Invite allowed the varsity teams to run ten competitors in each race, instead of the customary seven.  Because the coaches had only planned to run only Varsity at this meet, the change opened the door for three more athletes in each of the two races.  In addition to the top five, the Cougars were able to run Dan Egger, Quin Ralston, Schuyler Vandersluis, Phil Stafford, Eric Albers, and Drew Stimson.  All of these runners had a great races, a rewarding experience,  and represented Coronado in the best possible light.  It was especially nice to be able to steal Schuyler away from soccer for a rare race, which he (by the way) ran fantastically.

The girls team employed a 22 second pack time to secure 13th place.  Lauren Young led Coronado finishing in 56th place with a time of 21:21.  Five more Cougars would enter the chute over the course of the next twenty-four seconds and a six, just another ten seconds back.  The runners contributing to the "long red line" were Alexis Work, Bailey Gearhart, Kaeli Vandersluis, Kaitlin Burrell, Megan Trujillo and India Walden.  The girls team is currently working through some sickness and injury situations and are expected to run even better when the varsity runs next at the Metro League meet.

Cougar Girls Wrap Up 3rd While the Boys Take Home 5th at the Pike Peak Invitational

Girls

With several of the top ten runners competing in Littleton on Friday, seven Cougars were given the rare opportunity to step up and run against Varsity squads from Woodland Park, Ponderosa, Pueblo South, Sand Creek Sierra, Harrison, Manitou Springs and several other schools from around the area; and step up they did!  The girls’ team finished an impressive third, behind only Ponderosa and Sand Creek.  All seven runners executed impressive races over the tough, hilly, rutty and sometimes sandy course at Palmer Park.  The top five runners (Shannon Young, Bri Waldorf, Riliegh Darby-McClure, Emily Asay and Jill Brinkman) ran a total team effort, sporting an impressive pack time (time span between the first and fifty runners) of just forty seconds.  Bri (24:30) led the Cougars throughout most of the race but is still nursing a troubled knee and surrendered the team honors to Shannon (24:24) down the final straightaway.  Both girls finished among the top twenty finishers.  Riliegh also finished in the top twenty just fourteen seconds behind Bri in a time of 24:44.  Emily and Jill ran their respective best races of the season, finishing just over twenty-five minutes, with Silvia Hayes (25:18) and Christy Garrett (25:36) finishing less than 100 yards back in the sixth and seventh team spots.

Boys

Hayden Johnson got out fast and found his spot near the leaders as the pack of 100+ runners headed out towards the single track trails which wind through the sage and yucca of Palmer Park.  Hayden remained strong to the finish, nearly breaking twenty minutes (20:05) and leading the Cougars to a fifth place team finish.  Rioux Jordan ran his seasons’ best race finishing just ten seconds back and Miles Kelly was only another five seconds off of Rioux’s heels.  Following the example set by the girls, the Boys team also demonstrated impressive packing with their top five runners finishing within forty seconds of each other.  Phil Faires (20:29) and Justin Hays (20:46) rounded out the scoring for Coronado running in the 4^th and fifth team spots with Travvis Scott (21:03) and Adam Glynn (21:40) running sixth and seventh.

This was a tough course and times may appear slow, but the Cougars performed extremely well and should be proud of their fifth place finish, placing behind only Woodland Park, Pueblo South, Ponderosa and Sand Creek.

Open

Team results weren’t scored for the Open races; had they been calculated, it’s certain that the Cougars would have been near the top of the list.  Several Cougars ran their best efforts of the year.  On the boys team, some of those notable performances would have to include Scott Von Thun, (who led the way for the Coronado with a time of 21:12), Glenn Albright (21:19), Kris Rhodes (21:38) and Nick Burghardt (21:40).  Freshman Andrew Trujillo had another great race, running in the teams’ seventh spot in 22:15. 

For the girls, Emily Martin (25:30) held off a hard charging Erika Barton (25:40) for the team honors.  Welcome back Rachel Skivington (26:24), who has suffered through several weeks of illness, but returned with a fury, running third for the Cougars.  But the list of outstanding performances goes on and on, as nearly everyone who ran Thursday night performed exceptionally well.  Congratulate the following for their individual conquest and for a great team effort; Amanda Malone (26:36), Jasmine Kemble (26:40), Jenna Humble (26:47), Sara Petersiele (27:10), Kyran Kolar (27:51), Lindsey King (28:18), Elise Headley (29:02) and Carli Manthei (34:43).  And finally, an extra special congratulations for exceptional runs from Calli Johnson (27:21), Elena Lobato (29:08), and Leah Jaron (29:03) who somehow ran a personal best on this monster of a course.

Cool Weather Leads to Phenomenal Performances at the 2009 Cougar Classic

Boys

Dusty Solis Leads Cougars to a Team Title

Conner Winters was drafting off Dusty as the two runners headed into the final mile of yesterday’s Cougar Classic.  A brief five minutes later a sole figure appeared in the distance, sprinting for the finish line.  It didn’t take long to realize that Dusty had succeeded in breaking the Arapahoe Warrior somewhere shortly after cruising past Boddington Field.  Dusty ran a personal best of 15:51 on his way to a five second victory and led his team to a relatively lopsided victory.   In what was anticipated to be a challenging match up, the Cougars toasted second place Arapahoe by a score of 62 to 108.  Fruita-Monument was a distant third with 166 points.  Alan Versaw, webmaster for MileSplit may have expressed best regarding how impressive this win was when he wrote:

“The catnap is over--Coronado is a real contender. I'll write more extensively about this in a weekend summary, but Coronado's boys ran very well at their own invitational last night. Look for this team to make a leap in the rankings this week.”

A new and different surprise seems to surface each week.  This week, there were two major awakenings.  First, did anyone see Ryan Mott running with the likes of Dylan Witte and Ryan Logan (at least this early in the season), wow.  This week proved to be a breakthrough week for several of the Cougars, but none so meaningful as the forty second improvement from Ryan.  And then… what is the Ralston family feeding their son?  Quin Ralston finished last season ranked 24^th with a modest best time of 20:18.  Just four weeks into this season and he’s broken the eighteen minute mark and seems to have his sights on a sub seventeen.

The weather proved to be perfect for a 5K races as demonstrated by this weeks’ mass improvement.  Twenty-five of the thirty-five runners who started the boys race wrapped things up with a personal bests (PR).  Six runners (Quin Ralston, Phil Stafford, Eric Albers, Hayden Johnson, and Justin Hays) dipped under the nineteen minute mark and four others (Adam Glynn, Andrew Darress, Scott Von Thun and Justin Ramsey) saw the faster side of twenty minutes for the first time.  Two others (Tate Lagasca and Nick Burghardt) are knocking on the door.

The freshman boys continue to impress; Dan Egger ran sixth for the Cougars (17:40) while his cohorts, Phil Stafford (2^nd) and Eric Albers (8^th) were leading the JV team to a second place finish.

Girls

A Great Team Effort Results in Sixth Place

ThunderRidge (77), Arapahoe (102) and Air Academy (119) led the way taking the first three team spots while Mountain Vista (150), Durango (153) and Coronado battled it out for the next three spots.  Bailey Gearhart led the Cougars with a 15^th place finish and a personal best time of 20:23 while getting a plethora of support from her teammates.  Lauren Young (24^th) approached her personal best with a 20:47.   Kaitlin Burrell (21:08), Alexis Work (21:11) and Megan Trujillo (21:32) each manage to eclipse their previous best.  Kaeli Vandersluis and Rosie Bradley contributed with season best performances of identical 21:33s and helped create a sea of red as five Cougars crossed the finish line in a span of just 27 seconds. 

Air Academy, Mountain Vista and Durango will all be competing against the Cougars (at Regionals) for a trip to the State Meet, as will Palmer and Pine Creek(who didn’t run their varsity on Thursday) and Doherty (whom the Cougars beat for the first time in a few years).  But the Cougars should start to feel like they might have reasonable shot against this group considering that one of their top runners, Bri Waldorf was ailing yesterday and was relegated to the Open race.  A healthy Bri would certainly have swung the tide in Coronado’s favor and pulled the Cougars up to fourth (ahead of both Mountain Vista and Durango).

Not to be outdone by the Boys team, the girls finished an impressive second place in the JV race finishing behind the massive Arapahoe squad (58 – 84) with Palmer on their heels, in third (98).  And also not to be outdone (in terms of breakthroughs) the girls provided a few pleasant surprise of their own.  Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came when India Walden placed 6^th in the JV race, a whooping 2 minutes and 49 seconds faster than her previous best performance.  India’s time of 21:57 moves her up to ninth on the roster which might just win her a trip to Columbine next weekend.  Also making huge breakthroughs were Shannon Young (22:24), Emily Asay (23:20), Jenna Humble (25:18), Amanda Malone (25:56) and Sara Petersiele (25:59).  In all, the girls races resulted in twenty personal bests (PRs) from just thirty –two total starters.  Katherine Hutado, Calli Johnson, Betsy Morgan, Peri Duncan, Alex April, Elise Headley, Julianna Lobato and Leah Jaron should all be especially proud of their improvements.

Kadet Invitational

Boys Team Finishes 7^th and Girls 8^th as Freshmen and Sophomores Lead the Way

Boys

Freshman Dan Egger led the boys’ with an 18^th place finish in the Division I race on Thursday while the Cougar’s top five runners didn't compete and worked through this weeks’ competition.  Having their 6^th man place in the top twenty at the Kadet Invitational is testament to just how tough the Cougars are in 2009.  Not only did Dan run well, but the Cougars had six runners (three freshman, two sophomores and a junior) break the twenty minute barrier on this tough Air Force Academy Course.  Sophomore Quin Ralston in the midst of a breakthrough season ran second for the Cougars, finishing 31^st in a time of 19:18.  Following closely behind were a pair of freshmen; Eric Albers and Phil Stafford in 19:32 and 19:33 respectively.  Newcomers, Philip Faires and Drew Stimson also finished under the twenty minute mark with identical times of 19:52.  Rioux Jordan ran seventh for the Cougars covering the course in 20:31.

The freshman group was missing Schuler Vandersluis, who most certainly would have been in the midst of the action this week.  The Cougars finished 7^th in the overall team race, scoring 177 points and nearing beating Doherty’s varsity squad (173).  It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating… this is an extremely talented group of freshmen and sophomores.  Add sophomore, Ryan Mott (who took a week off from racing) and a couple of talented (anticipated) incoming eighth graders to the mix and this becomes a group who could wreck havoc on the Colorado racing scene for years to come.

 The boys JV team also saw some impressive performances as they went on to place 13^th in the Division II field.  State High Jump Champion, Travvis Scott led the way with an impressive 20.27 and was followed in closely by Glenn Albright, Adam Glynn, Alex Salter and Justin Hays; all of whom finished under twenty-one minutes.  Nearly all of the Cougars showed significant improvement over their 2008 races.

Girls

The girls’ team also ran without several (6) of their top runners but managed to finish an impressive 8^th place finish.  Kaitlin Burrell blitzed through the last mile passing up to twenty runners and elevating her finish to 23^rd, in time of 22:42 to lead the Cougars.

Rosie Bradley ran one of her best races of the young season, finishing 44^th in a time of 23:48.  Then came the long (red) line of Cougars, led by Riliegh Darby-McClure (24:28) and followed closely by Hailey Hauser (24:39), Shannon Young (24:41), India Walden (24:46) and Christy Garrett (25:19).  Despite the fact that this squad was missing several top runners, they managed to finish just three places behind a talented, fully staffed, Doherty team.  And like the boys squad, the girls team is loaded with young runners; seven of the Cougars’ top twelve runners are either freshmen of sophomores. 

Two additional Cougars broke twenty-five minutes, leading the JV team to a 13^th place finish in the Division II race.  Jill Brinkman led the way with a 40^th place finish (24:49) and was followed by just tenths of a second by Silvia Hayes (41st).  Silvia was charging hard to the finish line and is charging hard through the season; she dropped two minutes from her Arapahoe Invitational performance and is destined to drop a whole lot more before the season ends.

Other top finishers for the Cougars in the DII race included Emily Martin (26:17), Erika Barton (27:12), Jasmine Kemble (27:19), Amanda Malone (27:50) and Sara Petersiele (28:10)

The Cougars will be competing at full strength next Thursday at the Cougar Classic.  We’ll expect their times to drop significantly as this is the first (relatively) fast course of the season.  Come watch many of these runners run personal bests; or better yet, come help the manage the race.

Girls "B" Race Ends Up Golden @ the Silver Moon

The Cougar's relay squads found the awards stand six times last night, but only the Girls "B" squad found the top of the podium.  The team of Megan Trujillo, Bri Waldorf, Rosie Bradley, Hailey Hauser and Shannon Young surprised Cheyenne Mountain with two strong finishing legs.  Cheyenne held (what appeared to be) an insurmountable 100 yard lead after three legs, but that's when the tide turned.  Megan Trujillo ran the Cougar's third fastest time (10:24) of the night to give Coronado the lead as she handed off to Bri Waldorf.  Bri finished off the Indians coming into the stadium with a victory by a solid margin of at least thirty seconds..

The Cougars also appeared to be headed for the top spot of the podium in the Boys "C" race, but Cheyenne's anchor leg was too tough to hold off.  Cheyenne ended up sneaking past the Cougars in the last 400 meters for the win.  The team of Quin Ralston, Phil Faires, Drew Stimson, Travvis Scott and Justin Hays ran well but didn't quite have enough of a lead to hold off the hard charging Indians.  Sophomore, Quin Ralston made a huge statement, running the Cougar's fifth fastest leg of the evening.

The Boys "A" race provided additional exciting moments.  The Cougars went through the first three legs in third place, at which time Jesse Mathews turned the baton over to the capable hands of Ryan Logan.  Ryan disappeared into the night and reappearing 8 minutes and 25 seconds later in a surprising second place and only 25 seconds behind Cheyenne Mountain.  Dusty Solis, as good as he is, had no chance of making up the time, but don't tell him that.  Dusty made up about ten second on the leading team, running the 1.5 mile course in 7:51 and taking home the award for the fastest time of the night (for any team).  The team of Dusty Solis, Dylan Witte, Ryan Logan, Jesse Mathews and Ryan Mott were awarded silver belt buckles for their efforts.

The Girls "A" team ran great but had no chance of winning this event.  They were pitted against two of the top girls teams in the state.  Alamosa looked invincible in their cruise to the finish line with Cheyenne Mountain finishing second; about a minute behind.  The Cougars were in danger of finishing fourth and missing a trip to the awards stand when Kaitlin Burrell took charge.  Kaitlin grabbed the baton about 70 meters behind Fountain-Fort Carson but had flip-flopped that positioning by the time she had returned to the stadium.  A fast finishing leg by Bailey Gearhart (10:07) assured that the Cougars would hang on to their hard earned spot.  Alexis Work led the Cougars "A" team off with a fast split (10:05) and fastest of the night to take her teammates (Bailey, Kaitlin, Kaeli Vandersluis and Lauren Young) to the podium.

The Boys "B" Team (Eric Albers, Schuyler Vandersluis, Phil Stafford, Dan Egger and Rioux Jordan) ran a super race (in the pouring rain) to wrap up another 2nd place title.  Eric Albers ran his best race of the young season, running the sixth best time of the day for the Cougars (8:50). 

The Cougars' final awards presentation was made to the to the Girls "C" squad, who finished second in their race running the team of Michelle Gregory, Riliegh Darby-McClure, India Walden, Christy Garrett and Emily Martin. 

The coaching staff couldn't be prouder of everyone who ran on Saturday.  The conditions were so bad that it's believed that the race directors might change the name of the race to "Silver Nitrate" with the thought that there must have been a ton of cloud seeding to result in that much moisture in one night.  Anyway, the athletes displayed great courage and commitment in going about their respective duties.  It's great to leave the meet with such a feeling of pride.  Great job!

Dusty Solis Conquers the Arapahoe Invitational

Dusty left the pack (in the dust) at 3000 meters and never looked back.  By the time he reached the finish line, Dusty had built a sweet 19 second lead over some very talented competitors.  In winning the seasons' first race race, Dusty has positioned himself as one of the premier XC runners in Colorado and as one of the top contenders for the state title.  Joining Dusty on the awards stand was Jesse Mathews, who finished in sixth place and not far from the number two position.  As a team, the Cougars finished sixth (in the thirty-two team field).  Providing support in the team scoring were Dylan Witte (31st), Ryan Logan (42nd) and Rioux Jordan (115th).  Dusty and Jesse each ran around 40 seconds faster than their 2008 performances.  Dylan and Ryan each ran over a minute faster and Rioux ran a whooping two minutes faster than he ran last year.

Phenomenal Freshman Class Aids in Win of Freshman / Sophomore Race at Arapahoe

Four great additions to the Cougar program joined Ryan Mott in securing the winning plaque at the Arapahoe Invitational.  This meet is the only one of the season where the younger runners have an opportunity to run against their peers.  The Cougars, blessed with several young runners choose to focus on the freshman/sophomore race even though it meant a slight sacrifice to the varsity teams' performance.  But the decision paid off as Coronado walked away with the team title for the younger runners.  Sophomore, Ryan Mott led the way with a fifth place finish in 18:55 (nearly a minute ahead of 2008) and was followed to the finish chute by freshmen Dan Egger (6th) and Schuyler Vandersluis (7th), both under 19 minutes and 20 seconds.  Freshmen continued to add to the tally with Philip Stafford finishing 11th (19:31) and Eric Albers completing the scoring in 17th place (19.42)  Coronado won the team title (in the twenty-three team field) over perennial power Cherry Creek with a score of 46 to 70.  The next closest Pikes Peak area team was Air Academy, finishing in seventh place with a score of 189 points.  It's always been considered a great accomplishment for a young runner to break twenty minutes during his freshman year.  The Cougars now have four who have broken twenty minutes in their first race and on a very tough course.

Cougars Finish 5th and 11th in the Women's Races

Led by up and coming sophomore, Alexis Work (15th), the womens' freshman/sophomore team finished with a fifth place finish scoring 189 points.  The Cougars initially looked to be headed towards a third place finish but that plan was thwarted when Bri Waldorf dropped out with a knee injury.  We certainly hope that Bri is O.K., as she has been awesome in the early stages of her 2009 campaign.  Jumping in to help offset the loss of one of our top runners was Kaitlin Burrell, who finished 20th.  Rounding out the scoring were freshmen, Shannon Young (46th), sophomore, Riliegh Darby-McClure (51st) and freshman, India Walden (57th).  It should be noted that Alexis dropped nearly three minutes from last year's race.  Rachel Skivington and Silvia Hayes each ran great races to run 6th and 7th for the Cougars.

The varsity team, a little depleted (due to the above race) finished 11th in the 23 team field.  Bailey Gearhart led the way with a twenty-fifth place finish in 21:52.  Bailey was followed by Lauren Young, Kaeli Vandersluis, Megan Trujillo, Rosie Bradley, Hailey Hauser and Christy Garrett, all of whom ran very nice races.  The Cougars will back (close) to full strength when they compete at Cheyenne Mountain next Saturday.

Results have been posted.  Check the Competition Page

Check out all of the great photo on the "Photo Page"

Palmer Lake Scrimmage Was Totally Awesome

At least for the Cougars, the Men's race came out (just about) as predicted.  The Cougars were missing two of their top three runners but still managed to have three runners among the top ten finishers.  As expected, Jesse Mathews led Coronado with a 17:14 finish and was closely followed by Ryan Logan (17:47) and Ben Vaske (17:56). 

After a small gap, Ryan Mott finished in 18:38, followed closely by freshman Dan Egger.  Watch for Dan to run with the varsity group in the very near future (a rare feat for a freshman, at least at Coronado Missing from the top five were Dusty Solis (traveling) and Dylan Witte (injured).  Both should be back in action soon.

Other impressive finishes include a great group of talented freshmen; Schuyler Vandersluis (19:27), Eric Albers (19:36) Phil Stafford (19:31), Justin Ramsey (21:16) and Brandon Lehman (22:11). 

The womens' top seven also came out as anticipated but perhaps with a slight twist.  As expected, Bailey Gearhart ran off with the highest honors for the Cougars running the 5K in 21:18.  The (mildly) unexpected result came with Bri Waldorf moving up to the second spot with a time of 22:37.  The steady and consistent Lauren Young followed on Bri's footsteps in 22:41.  No surprise that the group of Kaitlin Burrell (22:44), Alexis Work (22:53), Rosie Bradley (23:03) and Riliegh Darby-McClure (23:30) rounded out the top seven.  Others who are expected to push this group (all year long) include Megan Trujillo (23:47), Jill Brinkman (23:54), Kaeli Vandersluis (out of action today) and Hailey Hauser (24:25).  But also don't count out newcomers Shannon Young (25:10) and Michelle Gregory (25:59).  And finally, special kudos to Jenna Humble who ran a fantastic time of 28:08 for her first 5k of 2009.

Results are posted on the Competition Page & pictures on the Photo Page